


taking a chance on where we want to go

by written_notes



Series: HP Next Gen series [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aurors, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-06-10 16:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6964105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_notes/pseuds/written_notes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which James Sirius Potter and Emily Wood get into a pretend relationship, deal with their own insecurities, and argue a lot about love - all while investigating a series of accidents involving professional Quidditch players.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. accidents are not always what they seem

“Potter?”

He turned around at the sound of his name and scanned the busy hospital corridor to find the owner of that vaguely familiar voice, his gaze finally landing on her. “Emily Wood. What a surprise.”

The auburn-haired young woman grinned back as she approached him. “Yeah, I haven’t seen you since…well, I can’t even remember when.”

James thought for a moment. “Was it…at Fred’s wedding?”

Her expression was one of utter confusion – a look that he rather enjoyed inducing on her. “What are you- Fred’s not- he hasn’t even sent out the invitations yet.”

He raised a brow. “That’s what you think.”

She looked genuinely worried for a few seconds before her eyes narrowed and she punched him in the arm. “Funny as always, Potter.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up slightly. “I try. What brings you here to St Mungo’s, anyway?” He surreptitiously tried to look for any signs of ill health or injury on her. They were standing on the fourth floor, which was the floor for spell damage, but she looked fine to him.

Emily’s smile lessened and she sighed. “One of my teammates was injured and I just came by to see how he’s doing.”

He nodded gravely. “It’s a rough game you guys play.”

She shook her head, her ponytail swishing from side to side. “Nah, Bryce never gets seriously injured in a game – he’s pretty agile.” James knew which player she was talking about, being an avid Quidditch fan himself. “He got mugged on his way home from the pub the other night and was beat up quite badly.” 

“Seriously? _Bryce Keegan_ got beat up?” James found it hard to believe that the burly Beater from Puddlemere United could be easily taken down by anyone. Then again, not everyone was as well-versed in defensive spellwork as most Aurors were. 

“He guesses he was pretty drunk at the time, since he can’t seem to remember what happened.” Emily shrugged. “But we were all pretty surprised as well. And it’s really bad timing for him too, given the upcoming selections for the national team.”

He winced. “That’s really unfortunate for him.”

“Yeah, he’d been training really hard for it, too.” She sighed again. “I’m not saying he would have _definitely_ gotten the position, especially when you consider other Beaters like Jimmy McLaren from the Magpies, Don Wilkins from the Kestrels, et cetera and how well they’ve played all season. But I’d say he had a good chance, and would have made it at least as a reserve.”

“And what about yourself?” James had to ask.

Emily snorted. “There’s no way I’d make it to the national team, James. Don’t be silly.”

He could tell that she meant it – it wasn’t just false modesty talking – but the inflection in her tone told him that she secretly wished she _could_ make the team. It was the tone of someone who knows that they aren’t so lowly ranked where playing for England is merely a pipe dream, but aren’t quite good enough to finally be chosen. “Well, you never know.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “I would think I’m in a better position to know than you are. Take it from someone who spends her free time re-watching matches and scrutinizing every single Keeper in the British Isles.”

“Well, then it looks like you’re wasting time standing here in a hospital rather than practicing on the pitch.” He said offhandedly, but immediately regretted it when she bit her lip and nodded.

“You’re right, I really should be getting back. Wouldn’t want to disgrace Puddlemere United at our next game.” Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes as she fiddled with the strap of her satchel.

James was about to say something, anything to cheer her up, when a couple of witches who had been pointing at him and whispering excitedly started approaching him.

“Oh my goodness, it’s James Potter!”

“Can we get a photo with you, please?”

Emily blinked in surprise at the two pretty girls and chuckled at James’ beleaguered expression. “I’ll leave you to your fans, Potter. See you around.”

Before he could do anything, she turned and quickly strode towards the elevator. He vaguely heard one of the girls ask the other if that was his girlfriend, and the other one shook her head vigorously, citing some magazine James didn’t recognize. By the time he managed to extricate himself by making excuses about being on the job, Emily was gone.

“Hey, James.”

That was the second time that day he’d been recognised in St Mungo’s, but this time it made much more sense because the person was a junior Healer.

“Scorpius.” He nodded with a smile. 

“So, what brings you here – personal or official?” Scorpius asked. “Though I highly doubt you’re here to pay _me_ a visit.”

“Official.” James hoped his voice sounded casual enough. “He was recently arrested and is awaiting trial after he recovers.”

Scorpius raised a brow. “I would have thought we usually get the victims rather than perpetrators. I hope you’re not interrogating a sick patient.”

James shook his head. “Just checking up on his progress, that’s all.” To his relief, Scorpius didn’t ask further about why this criminal had required hospitalization. James could have simply said it was classified, but Scorpius was rather astute and would probably have picked up on James’ discomfort. “How’s everything been for you?”

Scorpius shrugged. “It’s been a busy week, but that’s normal. I’m just looking forward to the end of the week where I get to meet some friends with Rose.” He paused for a second. “Actually, would you like to join us then? We’re meeting them on Friday – some of Rose’s Gryffindor friends.”

James thought about the pile of paperwork on his desk at the department, and then about returning to his apartment alone. “Sure, why not?”

\--

The Leaky Cauldron was a favourite of the Potter-Weasley clan, not only because the owner was a certain Mrs Longbottom and had a soft spot for them. Although, James and Rose freely admitted to charming her for free drinks whenever they could.

James automatically cased his surroundings as he stepped into the pub, noting where all the exits were, and looking out for any potential troublemakers. He made his way over to the table from which Rose was waving at him, and greeted the other Gryffindors, some of whom he already knew.

He took a seat that was facing the doorway, as was his habit so that he was aware of every person who entered, which sometimes meant that he wasn’t paying full attention to the conversation at the table.

“-you know, James’ ex-girlfriend-”

“What?” He interrupted Rose, who looked a little annoyed. “Who’re you talking about?”

“Samantha Chatterton. You know, blonde, from Ravenclaw in the year below you-”

He waved a hand impatiently. “I know who Samantha is. She wasn’t my girlfriend.”

Rose frowned. “You definitely dated her when you were in sixth year. I don’t forget things like this.”

“Just because I went out to Hogsmeade with her _twice_ doesn’t mean she was my girlfriend.” James protested.

To his surprise, Louis’ girlfriend, Maria Smith nodded in agreement. “He went out with so many girls it does seem a bit much to call them all his girlfriends.” James nearly choked on his Butterbeer and Louis tried hard not to laugh. “He got all the gorgeous ones, too.” Maria continued mischievously. “Let’s see, who else was there? Harper MacDonald, Natalie Thompson…”

“Leanne Donnelly, Marie O’Neil, Davina Kim, Andrea Stewart…” Rose ticked off on her fingers.

“It’s like you were trying to set some sort of record.” Louis joked.

“Alright, alright.” James grumbled. His fingers itched for his wand, longing to hex his cousins. He recognized that he’d been a bit of an idiot in school, going out with every pretty girl who asked him on a date. In his defence, he’d always been approached by them and not the other way around. He’d even gone out with a few girls whom he didn’t fancy, because he hadn’t had the heart to turn them down point-blank. Didn’t that make him a nice guy?

“Well, you’re different now.” Louis clapped him on the back. “You’re happily married to your work and haven’t cheated on her with another girl in a long time.”

Before James could reply, Scorpius came in through the door in a rush and looked around before finally spotting them. It was almost sickening to see how his face lit up at the sight of Rose, and equally disgusting to see how delighted Rose was to see her boyfriend, shutting up his apologies for being late with a kiss.

Amidst the shuffling of seats at their table, James noticed the door swing open again to allow a few young people in, one of whom turned out to be Emily Wood, to his surprise. He guessed that the others with her were also from Puddlemere United, although he didn’t know their names. She looked a little tired, and he decided not to bother interrupting her night out with her friends and stayed put at his table.

They seated themselves at the bar, and James kept surreptitiously glancing in that direction every few minutes during his dinner with the others. Rose was in the middle of telling a funny story about Hugo’s latest attempt at inventing a world wizarding web with Muggle computer technology when James noticed that a man had been chatting to Emily and was presumably asking for an autograph, since Emily was rummaging in her bag for a quill. James was surprised by his sudden feeling of dislike for the man. 

And then, because he was still watching the man closely, he saw him quickly drip a vial’s contents into Emily’s glass. James blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. In his Auror training, he’d been taught to notice all manner of details and not to ignore his instincts, all of which were now screaming at him that the man was up to no good.

He kept a hand on his wand as he watched Emily sign a piece of scrap parchment for the stranger and then take a large mouthful of her drink. She was still chatting happily with the stranger, and James once again wondered if he’d been mistaken about what he thought he saw. Then he saw her put a hand to her temple, looking a little dizzy.

James mumbled something about getting another drink and pushed back his chair as he strode towards the bar where Emily and the strange man were, wondering where her two friends had disappeared to. 

“-I don’t feel too well. I’m not sure what came over me.” James could hear Emily speaking and sounding rather dazed.

“Oh dear. Would you like me to accompany you outside?” The man’s voice was all polite concern, but James could see the expectant, almost hungry look on his face, which was enough to turn his stomach.

“I- that’s okay, Jeffrey, I’ll just um… I’ll just wait for my friends…” Emily protested weakly, but the man’s hand was already on her elbow.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just take you outside for some air.” He interjected smoothly.

James briskly stepped forward. “Emily! Fancy seeing you here!” He made sure to sound delightedly surprised, glancing at the stranger – apparently named Jeffrey – and noting the flash of annoyance on the man’s face.

Emily glanced up at him in surprise. “James! Hi. What brings you here- oh.” A wave of dizziness seemed to hit her and she suddenly gripped his arm to prevent herself from slipping off the barstool. James promptly held on to her arms to stabilize her. “Oh, I feel so tired.”

“I’d be happy to-” Jeffrey began, before James cut him off.

“You look pretty sick, Em. I think we should have Scorpius take a look at you. He’s just sitting over there.” James pointed back to his table, and then addressed the man in front of him. “My friend’s a Healer at St. Mungo’s – he’ll know how to help.”

“I suppose that would be better.” Jeffrey bit out.

James smiled pleasantly and leaned forward so that Emily wouldn’t hear what he was about to say. “Don’t think I didn’t notice what you did there. Unless you want me to take this glass and have it analysed at the Potions lab in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I suggest you leave immediately and not return to this pub. Ever. Do we have an understanding?”

The man’s face had been growing steadily redder with James’ words, and he mumbled something before grabbing his coat and leaving in a hurry. James quickly glanced over to his table and made eye contact with Scorpius, who came over. “I think someone drugged her drink.” James said in an undertone. “She only took one mouthful, but she’s feeling sick and tired. Can you check her to see if she needs further medical attention?”

“Of course.” Scorpius’ tone was brisk and professional. “Miss Wood, I need you to stay awake for me.” He took out his wand and briefly examined her while asking her a series of questions to check her level of consciousness. “Alright. She isn’t showing any signs of the usual potion overdoses, which is good. Most victims just experience some dizziness and become very sleepy, but are okay the next day, if nothing else happens.” His voice was heavy with meaning, causing James to grit his teeth.

“So should I bring her to St. Mungo’s for observation, or can she go home?” James asked worriedly. He hadn’t seen many cases of potion-assisted assault – as it was termed – and wasn’t quite sure of how to proceed.

“She should be fine to go home, but should have someone with her for the next twelve hours in case she experiences any adverse potion effects, such as tremors, seizures and severe loss of consciousness.” Scorpius advised.

“Right, I’ll get her home.” James nodded decisively. “Thank you.” He added sincerely, and Scorpius clapped him on the back reassuringly.

“I’ll just tell Rose and the rest that you had to leave.” The junior Healer headed back to the table.

“Come on, Emily, let’s get you home.” James said gently to the drowsy young woman in his arms, before realizing that he didn’t know where she lived. “Do you live with anyone?”

“No. By m’self.” She slurred. “Alone.”

“Okay, where are the two friends who were with you just now?”

“I dunno.” She sighed. “Prob’ly snuck off t’ make out.”

It was obvious that she wasn’t able to Apparate home herself, and he couldn’t bring her if he didn’t know where she stayed. “Alright, then. You’re coming with me.”

\--

Her head felt muzzy and she groaned as she tried to sit up, wondering where she was. 

“Morning, Em!” Lily Potter’s cheery voice greeted her. “You had a rough night last night. How are you feeling now?”

“Like I drank too much Firewhiskey.” Emily rubbed her eyes in misery. “Why am I in your apartment?”

“Do you remember what happened last night at all?” Lily asked instead of replying her, wanting to gauge how confused her friend was.

Emily tried to recollect the previous evening, although it was all still rather foggy. “I remember going to the Leaky Cauldron with a couple of the reserve team players. I don’t remember drinking much, though. Then… I think I felt sick?” Her brow wrinkled as she thought hard. “I think James was there with Scorpius. That’s about all I remember.”

Lily nodded and brought her a glass of water. “James said you ate something bad and asked me to look after you for the night. He probably didn’t know your address. And you live alone, so it was safer for him to bring you here.”

“He did that?” Emily blinked in surprise. A part of her vaguely wondered why James hadn’t just brought her to his own place, and then she flushed slightly at the thought of being in his apartment alone with him. 

“Yup. He was quite insistent that I monitor you. Seemed overly concerned about your welfare, if you ask me.” Lily’s tone took on a teasing quality.

Emily knew it was best to ignore the younger girl whenever she made such comments. Lily Potter was convinced that her brother needed a girlfriend, and had apparently decided on trying to set him up with Emily, dropping broad hints here and there. Emily had rather mixed feelings about this. 

On one hand, it was pathetically gratifying that Lily, James’ precious baby sister, actually thought Emily Wood was someone worthy of her big brother whom she clearly adored. On the other hand, constantly hearing Lily talk about James and his redeeming qualities simply made it harder for Emily to think of him as just a friend. And she had spent far too long trying to get over her annoying schoolgirl crush on him to have it all coming back to her now.

“Well, that was nice of him.” Emily said blandly. “He’s a good friend.”

“Most guys aren’t that concerned about female friends to the point of bothering their sisters to look after their health.” Lily persisted.

“James is, though.” Emily replied quietly. “He’d do it for any of us. He’s just that sort of person.”

\--

James looked at Lily in bemusement as he took the parchment from her and read the short missive. 

_To James Potter,_ it read, _Thanks for making sure I had someone to look after me when I was unwell. Remind me to treat you and Lily to a drink the next time we see each other. And tell Lily that, no, I don’t actually get free tickets to all Quidditch games in the English league, but I can get her discounted ones, although I’m sure your mum gets them too. Best wishes, Emily Wood._

He couldn’t help but snort at the last part, and Lily immediately pounced on him, demanding to know what the letter said.

“She’s going to treat us to a drink as thanks.”

“ _Drinks?_ What about free Quidditch tickets?” Lily huffed, arms akimbo.

Then James really had to laugh at how Emily had managed to anticipate Lily’s response, and showed Lily the letter. Before Lily could start planning a day to meet up with Emily, their mother was calling them for dinner. Even though they all lived separately, the whole Potter family met up with Ron and Hermione’s family for dinner at least once a fortnight. James couldn’t always make it for these dinners, but he had recently finished a case and wasn’t too busy at the moment.

Scorpius was also in attendance for once, being even busier than James at times, and he was seated in between Rose and James. “So, I know about patient confidentiality and all that, but I was wondering if a certain professional Quidditch player in St Mungo’s is recovering well.” James whispered to Scorpius.

Scorpius swallowed the food in his mouth and frowned slightly. “How did you know about that? It wasn’t on the news.”

“I bumped into Emily Wood when she was visiting him, about a week ago.”

Now Scorpius looked even more perplexed. “This patient only came in last night. I think you must be thinking of a different person.”

James frowned. “Oh, so… not a Beater from Puddlemere?”

Scorpius’ expression cleared. “Oh, not that guy, no. He’s been discharged. The one we got last night was a Chaser from another team.”

“I see.” James took a sip from his drink. “I didn’t realise Quidditch players were hospitalized so often. Especially when it isn’t peak game season.”

“They aren’t, as far as I know.” Scorpius commented thoughtfully. “But this one wasn’t injured during a game. It was some sort of accident. Then again, accidents happen to everyone, including famous Quidditch players. Last month we had another one come in with a rather nasty potion poisoning, for example. I think she’s been unable to play properly since then.”

Then Rose nudged Scorpius to ask him something, diverting his attention from the conversation. James continued eating, but was really thinking about the likelihood of three Quidditch players getting into accidents in such close proximity. Perhaps it was something he should bring up to his supervisor.

“James, are you alright, dear?” His mother suddenly turned her attention to him. “You’ve been rather quiet.”

He blinked. “I’m fine, Mum. Just thinking about work stuff.”

“Thinking about how to avoid your old man at departmental functions, I bet.” Ron guffawed, while Harry rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

“That would be impossible.” James declared theatrically.

\--

Auror Savage gave James a look that made him feel like the rookie he was when he was first assigned with the older man for his direct supervisor. Savage had been an Auror before James’ father had even entered Hogwarts, and James had often thought that that was one of the reasons he’d been assigned as James’ mentor – it would have been frustrating to have a mentor who was intimidated by his father.

“Potter, you have literally just finished one of the most strenuous cases you’ve ever been involved in. Now you’ve come in with a _hunch_ about another issue, which I can’t be expected to take seriously, given how little sleep you’ve gotten over the past month, despite the fact that I ordered you to take the next week off.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly what James had been expecting to hear. “I really don’t need to take time off, sir.” _Especially not when no other Auror in the department is_ , he thought privately. Savage continued observing him, once again giving James the sensation of being measured somehow. “And I think it might be worth just checking out these individual incidents while we don’t have any other cases to handle, sir.” He repeated.

“Very well.” Savage relented. “I’ll give you until the end of the week to either come up with some relevant information, and we’ll see whether it warrants our investigations, or can be handled by the guys in Patrol, or if it turns out to be nothing.”

“Thank you, sir.” James tried not to grin. “I’ve left the paperwork for the previous case on your desk already. See you when I get more information.” He grabbed his cloak and left the Auror Headquarters, presumably popping over to the Law Enforcement Patrol department to get hold of any useful reports.

Savage shook his head slightly, the greying hairs belying his age. “That boy worries me sometimes.”

“What’s that now?” Auror Proudfoot glanced up at him from his desk. “Doesn’t he do good parchment-work?”

“They call it ‘paperwork’ now, man.” Savage corrected his colleague absently. “And there’s nothing wrong with his work. It’s just that sometimes it seems like he’s trying too hard, like he’s got something to prove.”

“Maybe he thinks he does,” Proudfoot gave a very pointed look at the Head Auror office, “considering who his old man is.”

Savage sighed and returned to the work at hand.

\--

James wasn’t a hundred percent sure why he was here at the pitch Puddlemere United used for practices. He had already interviewed Bryce Keegan, who had been obliging enough to give James whatever information he could, but his memory remained maddeningly vague on the events of the actual incident. 

Well, he was hoping that talking to the coach and some of Keegan’s teammates would give him insight to anyone who might have a grudge against Keegan, or perhaps reveal any shady goings-on involving Quidditch teams. But he had to admit that it wasn’t that likely that he’d find anything particularly ground-breaking.

He found Coach McKinnon waiting for him in the stands, occasionally yelling out directions to the players. James’ gaze automatically went to the sides of the pitch in order to catch a glimpse of Emily near the three hoops she should be defending. He quickly spotted her and paused for a moment to admire how she did a complicated-looking spin in order to catch the Quaffle and almost immediately made an excellent throw to one of the Chasers.

“Auror Potter.” Coach McKinnon greeted him. “How may I help you? I believe I already said I don’t know anything more about Keegan’s accident.”

“Yes, I’m sorry to have to disturb your practice session here. I was just hoping to get a better idea of anything that might have been suspicious in the past few months, and if you were aware of anyone who might have motive to harm Keegan.” James put on his most professional air.

Thankfully, the Quidditch coach agreed to have a chat with him, leaving the team to continue practicing without him. He wasn’t prevaricating when he said he didn’t have anything to add, however, and from all accounts Bryce Keegan sounded like a pleasant Quidditch player from a nice, normal background.

In fact, the thing that seemed to upset McKinnon most was how Keegan had seemingly lost his chance to be picked for the national team for the World Cup, which Emily had mentioned to James earlier. Despite the fact that the selections were nowhere near finalized, McKinnon seemed to think that the injuries sustained by Keegan and the recovery time required would have knocked Keegan out of the running.

“Well, I suppose nothing is certain when it comes to these things.” James tried to interrupt McKinnon mid-rant. “Apparently there have been other Quidditch players who’ve been hospitalized recently as well.”

“Don’t I know it!” McKinnon roared, and started rambling about how it was disgraceful how accidents like these were happening and robbing the England from the chance to pick better players, especially when they actually stood a fighting chance to get to the finals this upcoming World Cup. James then learned that the other players who had been involved in accidents were similarly contenders for the national team, and that there were others he hadn’t been aware of.

After being reassured that no one held a grudge against Keegan, James thanked Coach McKinnon for his valuable time and asked him to contact him if he thought of anything else. On his way out he happened to bump into a horde of sweaty, rosy-cheeked Puddlemere United players trooping towards the changing rooms.

“Potter.” Emily blinked in surprise at seeing him for what must have been the third time this month – a rather unusual occurrence. “What are you doing here?”

James had a split second to decide whether to explain his presence in front of the entire team. He opted to grin lazily at her and declare, “I’m here to collect that drink you owe me, Wood.”

Emily rolled her eyes at that, recognizing how ridiculous it sounded. James continued grinning and followed them to the changing rooms.

“Didn’t know you were on such good terms with Harry Potter’s son, Emily.” One of the Chasers remarked as she eyed James speculatively. It was a little bit thrilling to be stared at by _the Winifred Johnson_ , and James rejoiced internally.

“She doesn’t like to admit that I used to be a better player than her back in school.” He said cheekily before Emily could even open her mouth to reply, turning on the charm full blast. “But I’m a big fan of Puddlemere United. I wish I’d remembered to bring my poster to get autographs from you all, especially Bryce Keegan’s.”

“You’re out of luck there.” Another Chaser, Gore commented. “Keegan’s away on sick leave for the time being.”

“That’s unfortunate.” James looked apologetic and regretful. “I hope it’s not some sort of serious illness? I thought he looked a little off-colour at the last game you guys played against the Falcons.” He ignored Emily’s gaze boring a hole into his head, knowing that she must be wondering what he was up to.

“Nah, it was an accident.” Johnson shook her head. “He really should know better than to walk in dangerous streets at night if he was plastered.”

“It’s a shame.” James sighed theatrically. “What a loss, especially at this time. I was looking forward to seeing him play for England.”

“I bet McLaren and Wilkins wouldn’t mourn his dropping out of the running.” Keegan’s fellow Beater Finley scowled. 

“Well, you can’t blame them for that if their chances of making the team just increased.” Johnson chided him gently. “It’s a cutthroat business, Quidditch.” She addressed James solemnly. “Especially when it comes to something as high-stakes as the World Cup.”

“You don’t say.” He looked suitably impressed. “Imagine the glory of representing England.”

Gore snorted. “Glory’s well and good, but money’s the real pull here.”

“Iggy…” Johnson’s voice took on a warning tone.

Gore rolled his eyes. “Potter’s an Auror, and his dad’s the Head. You don’t think he knows about all the underhand stuff that goes on behind the scenes?” He turned to James. “You’ve heard about the match-fixing scandal in the semi-final of 2010.”

James nodded, vaguely recalling Uncle Ron mentioning something about it. “But surely there are players who wouldn’t succumb to bribery, if it meant deliberately losing for England.”

“Of course there are.” Johnson assured him. “But who’s to say those people get selected for the team?”

“Everyone has their price.” Gore proclaimed darkly. 

James rather felt like his childhood love of the World Cup was being slowly tarnished by the world-weary wisdom of these seasoned players. Then Emily emerged from the showers looking fresh as a daisy. “Are you still here, Potter?” She demanded.

“You’re not getting out of this free drink you owe me, Wood.” He cheerfully reminded her.

“Better humour the boy, Emily.” Johnson laughed. 

“Ha, ha,” Emily forced a laugh and practically shoved the grinning Auror out of the locker room. “Alright,” she began as they headed towards the exit, “do you want to tell me what all that was about?”

“I’m just doing a little investigation on what happened to Keegan.” His jolly demeanour dropped. “I’m not so sure it was an accident.”

Emily stared at him in apprehension. “What makes you think so?”

He briefly outlined what had happened to all the other Quidditch players, trusting that Emily was sensible enough not to repeat what she had heard. Then he pointed out that the conversation he’d had in the locker rooms showed that there could be some motivations for injuring players and thereby rigging who got into the national team.

Emily ran a hand through her hair in distress. “What you’re suggesting… that’s horrible.”

James then reflected that it must be rather hard for her to accept, given how Quidditch had been a huge part of her life since her childhood. “I’m hoping I’m wrong, to be honest.”

“And are you often wrong?” She arched a brow at him.

He considered this for a few seconds. “Nope.”


	2. Like father, like child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which there is another accident, followed by a series of misunderstandings.

It was unusual for Emily to ask him to meet her, and at first he wondered whether she was actually just going to treat him to that drink which he hadn’t had time for the last time he’d seen her at the Puddlemere pitch. In fact, it was unusual to be seeing so much of her – he usually only saw her at the occasional Weasley Quidditch game or at rare formal occasions such as weddings. It was rather nice, actually, he mused.

Oddly, she had suggested that they meet at a Muggle café rather than a wizarding establishment, which then made him realise that she probably wanted to talk about the Quidditch case without being eavesdropped on. He brightened at the thought of her having more information for him.

He entered the café and managed to spot her sitting at a table in the corner, drinking from a cup while staring outside the window. It was a little strange to see her wearing Muggle clothing rather than her Quidditch robes, but he noted that she blended in very well with the other customers of the café, unlike certain wizards and witches he’d had the misfortune of seeing in Muggle communities before.

She looked lost in her own thoughts as he approached the table, nearly dropping her cup when he slid into the chair opposite her. “Oh, hi.” She smiled in slight embarrassment. “Sorry, I thought you were a Muggle stranger for a moment.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment to my dressing ability.” He smirked. A young waitress came over and asked him if he would like to order anything. Neither of them missed the appreciative looks the waitress was giving him as he ordered a latte.

“Do you wear Muggle clothing often?” Emily asked curiously after the waitress had left.

James shrugged. “Sometimes when we have cases that require us to investigate in the Muggle community, sometimes at home because they’re more comfortable than robes. Dad was raised by Muggles, so he knows what looks normal. And he made us all learn how since we were young because we’ve got Muggle relatives we visit every year.”

“Muggle relatives?” She paused. “On your Dad’s side?”

“Yeah, Dad’s got a Muggle cousin. Uncle Dudley’s okay, I guess. He’s got a couple of children younger than us.” He explained.

“Cool.” She sipped her coffee again before meeting his expectant gaze. “Right. So you’re probably wondering why I asked to meet you.”

“Not really. I assumed it was because you can’t get enough of my sparkling personality and wit.” James joked glibly.

“You forgot to mention your stunning good looks and surprising humility as well.” Emily replied dryly, although there was a twinkle in her eye as she said it.

“I am exceedingly humble.” He nodded agreeably, then graced the waitress with a charming smile when she brought him his coffee.

“I honestly have no idea how Lily and Albus put up with you.” Then her expression became serious. “Anyway, I found out something about Keegan before he got injured.”

James leaned forward, not wanting to miss anything. 

“After your little visit to our locker room,” Her eyes narrowed and he gathered that she was still a little annoyed by how she’d been blindsided, “one of the guys told me that Keegan mentioned that he’d been approached by one of the higher-ups regarding… being selected for the national team. But apparently there was something kind of shady about it, some money involved – I’m not too clear on that – and he refused the guy’s offer, whatever it was. That was two days before the accident happened.”

James sat back and took a while to digest all this, and with each passing moment of silence, Emily’s expression grew more and more anxious. “I’m sorry it’s all so- so vague and non-specific.” She rambled, fingers tapping an irregular rhythm on the table. “You’d probably have been able to get a better story out of him-”

He leaned forward and laid a hand over hers, causing her to go still. “Hey.” He caught her gaze. “You did well, Emily. That might be the most concrete thing we have thus far.” She nodded mutely, and then he realized his hand was still covering hers and quickly removed it. “Now, if what this guy says is true, it can be verified by Pensieve. We can go back and ask Keegan if he remembers anything about that, and interview the others who were injured as well.”

Emily started to look more hopeful. “I hope we actually do find out more information.” Then she went a little pink. “That is, if you don’t mind me tagging along.”

James considered this for a couple of seconds. “Sure. Even amazingly talented Aurors such as yours truly need able-bodied assistants.”

“Although I’m not sure I can handle being near such greatness.” She replied dryly.

They were clearly back on their usual footing, to his relief. With that, he stood up and exaggeratedly gestured for her to make an exit.

\--

Rose and Albus made sure to catch up over lunch at least once a week. This often wasn’t too difficult because they both worked in the Ministry of Magic, although they were in different departments. As of now, the two were tucking in and Rose had a question for Albus.

“Al, is James dating anyone right now?”

Albus furrowed his brows at the question that seemed to have come out of nowhere. “I don’t think so. Why are you asking?” His eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to set him up with someone?”

“No.” She scoffed. “I was just curious.”

He knew that she was withholding some information, and continued to stare at her until she gave in.

Rose sighed. “Alright, I thought… _maybe_ he and Emily Wood had something going on, but clearly it isn’t happening, so-”

Albus nearly choked on his lunch. “ _Emily Wood_? Why would you think that Emily and James are going out?” It sounded weird even to mention the possibility.

“Hear me out, okay?” She grumbled, hating for her cousin to think that she was making some baseless guess. “Scorpius told me the two of them were chatting in St Mungo’s some time back. And then there was the time we were out with James and Louis and Maria when James found Emily to be ill and made Scorpius come over to check on her. Lily told me later that he actually brought her to her place and made her promise to take care of Emily, implying that he’d been overly concerned about her. And the other day he was talking to Dad about how great Puddlemere United is, especially Emily.”

He considered the list of ‘evidence’ she’d compiled. “That doesn’t mean they’re going out. Maybe they’re just good friends.”

“Hmph.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Lily seems to think otherwise. And I think they’d make a cute couple.”

Albus tried to imagine his brother and previous teammate as a couple. The two had a friendship that was mainly funny banter and Quidditch talk, from what he remembered. And yet now that he thought about it, he’d always gotten the feeling that Emily understood his brother pretty well, and that his brother could always make her smile. “No point speculating on it,” was what he said to Rose, though.

\--

Emily was practically aflutter with excitement after that day’s practice. A couple of members of the selection committee had turned up to Puddlemere’s practice for observation, and Coach McKinnon had heavily hinted to her afterwards that she might be chosen as a reserve for the national team. It was something she’d dreamed of ever since her father had bought her her first real broomstick and encouraged her to think about going professional.

It also came as a complete surprise, since she hadn’t any idea that the selection committee was even considering her for reserve Keeper. Was she actually good enough to be playing at that level? She stopped at the door of the locker room and overheard her name being mentioned by one of the other players.

“-in the running for the national team, then.”

“What else can you expect from Oliver Wood’s daughter?”

Stung, Emily jerked back from the door. It figured that every time she made some achievement in the Quidditch arena, there would always be people attributing it to her family connections rather than her own ability and hard work.

She willed herself not to tear up and loudly entered the locker room, giving the others inside enough time to switch topic. She cleaned her gear mechanically and showered without saying much else to the others, feigning greater tiredness than she actually felt. The moment she got home she collapsed onto her couch and pulled out her two-way mirror – a device that essentially worked like a Muggle handphone. In the old days you could only talk to one other person via the mirror, but wizarding inventors had managed to take the hint from Muggle technology and designed mirrors that let you talk to anyone who had one.

“Hey, Karen.” She smiled when her former classmate’s face appeared.

“Hi Em, what’s up?”

Karen was probably the closest thing Emily had to a best friend, although she wasn’t really the type to have one single best friend. She generally had several good friends with whom she shared a lot, but never anyone to whom she divulged her deepest secrets. Karen was more understanding than most, which was why Emily found herself recounting the day’s events to her.

“Don’t listen to them, Em. They’re just jealous they’re not as talented as you. Of course you deserve to be picked for the national team! Who cares what they think anyway?”

Another great thing about Karen was that she always took your side. Other friends might have told Emily to suck it up and be grateful she got to play for the league, let alone be considered for the national team. But Karen just ranted on her behalf, cursing every player from the Wasps to the Harpies, succeeding in making Emily laugh in spite of her low spirits.

After she ended the call, her thoughts turned to James Potter (which seemed to be happening more often than she liked) and wondered if he felt the same way in the Auror Department. Maybe it was worse for him because his father still worked there, whereas Oliver Wood had moved on from Puddlemere United before Emily had even graduated from Hogwarts. And yet James was always confident and self-assured, and by all accounts a competent Auror, so perhaps he had nothing to worry about.

And didn’t far more people want to be Quidditch players than Aurors, anyway? James Potter had nothing on her, she decided firmly. It was time for some ice-cream.

\--

A purple paper aeroplane zoomed onto James’ desk, to his bemusement. He unfolded the interdepartmental memo to reveal a note written in Albus’ handwriting. He vaguely wondered why his brother would be writing to him within the Ministry, and so near the end of the working day, but his eyes widened as he read on. 

He made a hasty excuse to Savage and rushed up to the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes in as dignified a manner as possible. He made a beeline for his brother as soon as he spotted the familiar messy black hair and glasses. “What happened? Is she alright?” He demanded.

Albus looked a little stunned to see his brother there so promptly. “Yes, she’s fine. I mean, I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you all the details, but you can go ask her yourself.” James nodded and headed in the direction Albus pointed him towards, not thinking to ask why his younger brother had thought to inform him about this.

“Emily.” James touched her shoulder and she whirled around in shock.

“P-potter.” He had never seen her so frazzled before. “You don’t work on this floor.” She blurted out.

“Al told me you were here because of some accident.” He explained briefly. “What happened?”

“Oh.” She shook her head distractedly. “There was a sort of explosion at my apartment door, and my neighbour was injured quite badly. And because she’s a Muggle, they had to send some people to explain the whole thing to other Muggles and do some Obliviating. They told me to come down here to give a full report of what I saw.”

He frowned. “And how did this accident happen?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice was trembling now. “I swear it wasn’t caused by me – my wand wasn’t even out. She was trying to help me open the door because my hands were full and then it just hit her. And- and it could have been me. I know it’s stupid and selfish to think about that when poor Mrs Gleeson is lying in a hospital bed and I’m fine, but it’s just…”

“It’s natural to be scared, Emily.” He’d seen it in several cases he’d investigated in the past and recognized that state of shock. “Are you sure you’re not injured anywhere?”

“I, uh, had some minor burns but the Mediwitch took care of those.” She rubbed her arms uncomfortably. “They kept asking me whether anyone might want to hurt me, for any reason. And I couldn’t help thinking about all those other injured Quidditch players.”

“Were you also approached by anyone suspicious like Keegan was?”

She paused uncertainly and he nodded for her to go on. “Coach hinted that I might get picked to be a reserve on the national team, but it’s not anywhere near official yet. And I wasn’t made any shady offers of any sort.”

“Well, maybe that’s because they know you would never sell out for the money.” James mused, unconsciously complimenting her. “Maybe they wanted you out of the running.” He immediately regretted saying that when he saw the dismay and fear on her face.

“Is it safe for me to go home?” Emily asked quietly, although her hands were now gripping her robes tightly.

“I think it’s best if you don’t.” He sighed. “It might be safer to stay somewhere else unconnected to other Quidditch players, and where someone can keep an eye out for you.”

She laughed at that. “That might be a little hard to arrange, considering who most of my friends are.” She briefly thought of Karen, but Karen was recently married and had no space for Emily to crash over.

“I’ve got a spare room at my apartment.” He volunteered, as it seemed to be the only sensible option left.

Emily looked utterly taken aback. “Stay at _your_ place?”

“Miss Wood.” The middle-aged wizard who had been taking down her report earlier, an Officer Reynolds, had returned with a new set of parchment. “We’ll need you to sign this statement and leave your contact details on this form in case we need to ask you any further questions, especially if you’re going to be staying at your boyfriend’s home instead of your current address. And he’s right – it might be safer for now not to return to your apartment.”

“I don’t-” She barely made out before Reynolds had given her the statement to sign, whisked it away from her and then put another form in her hands to fill out while he went off to file the statement.

“Let me fill that out for you.” James plucked the parchment from her fingers and began writing his address down.

“What are you doing?” She gaped at him. “I can’t stay at your place.”

“Look, it’s only temporary, no one involved in Quidditch would think to go there, and you’d be living with an Auror. It makes sense.” He continued scribbling. “We’ll head back quickly to grab some of your things first.”

Emily couldn’t quite believe how the situation had gotten out of her control. She usually hated have things taken out of her hands like this. And yet she was still trembling internally after what had happened, and it was actually a relief to have someone like James Potter organizing things.

“Here you go.” James beamed at Officer Reynolds who had come back to collect the form. “I’ll take care of her, sir.”

“Good on you, young man.” The wizard nodded approvingly. “I wish my daughter’s boyfriend was as responsible as you.”

James grinned as Emily spluttered and ushered her out of the department.

“So, is everything settled?” Albus asked Reynolds.

“As well as it can be.” The middle-aged wizard replied. “That girl’s going to stay with her boyfriend until we get to the bottom of this accident; make sure nothing fishy is going on.”

“Boyfriend?” Albus echoed in surprise and stared at the two retreating figures before glancing down at the form that bore his brother’s address. Rose was right after all!

\--

There was only so much protesting one could do when faced with the immovable will of James Sirius Potter, Emily reflected resignedly as she packed several sets of Quidditch robes, valuables and other personal items into her bag.

“Nice place you’ve got here.” James commented as he peered at the photos she kept on the shelf. She kept a _lot_ of photos. There was even one photo of the Gryffindor Quidditch team for each year she had been on the team, which was about the same number of years James had been on it. He chuckled as he recalled the try-outs that year, where Emily had been the only person trying out for Keeper who had managed to block the majority of his shots. Their captain had practically been brimming with pride to have the children of Harry Potter and Oliver Wood on his team.

Speaking of which, he noted a photo showing Oliver Wood coaching a very young Emily on a broomstick. The almost manic expression of glee on Emily’s face made James smile to himself. He realized that she was wearing an oversized Puddlemere United t-shirt in that photo.

“You were always headed for Puddlemere, weren’t you?” He commented lightly. “Like father, like daughter.”

Emily’s hand stilled in her packing for a moment before she resumed putting things in. “I suppose so.”

“Did he bias you towards Puddlemere? Ruin you for the other teams?”

“Well, I wasn’t so naïve as to assume that I’d definitely get in to Puddlemere, so I tried out for other teams seriously. I guess I was lucky to get in to my favourite team.” She hefted the bag onto one shoulder and headed out of her bedroom.

“Luck wasn’t the issue there, Wood.” He scoffed. “It’s not like anyone thought you of all people weren’t going to get in.”

Emily stiffened abruptly at those words, recalling with sudden clarity what she had overheard outside the locker room the other day. “Why? Because I’m Oliver Wood’s daughter?”

James looked confused at the sudden shift in her tone. “Well, I suppose that factors in since you’ve got his-”

“Recommendation?” She interrupted angrily, feeling exceptionally hurt that James would say such a thing to her. He’d often teased her, but was never truly cruel. “Because my daddy used to be on the team so I’m a shoe-in?”

His look of bewilderment gave way to sober understanding. “Actually, I was going to say you’ve got his talent. And his crazy work ethic, come to think about it.”

“Oh.” She deflated quickly, and could feel her cheeks reddening in embarrassment. “I’m sorry I assumed you were… never mind. Let’s just go.”

“Wait.” He caught her shoulder in her attempt to brush past him. “You don’t actually believe that’s why you were accepted onto the team, do you?”

Emily felt like she’d been ambushed with the sudden question and his unyielding posture. “No…I- I don’t know. Other people seem to think so.” It came out a lot more pathetic than she’d intended, and she winced.

James frowned. “Other people can just… anyway, that’s not important. What’s important is that you know that you got in because you’re brilliant at Quidditch.”

“But how can I _know_ that?” She sighed in frustration, the words spilling out of her after being suppressed for so long. “How can I ever know that my father’s position didn’t have some bearing on my acceptance? Sure, maybe I’m a good player, but there are loads of other good players out there who didn’t get in when I did. And I’m always going to be my father’s daughter to other people.”

Her words cut to the heart of one of his unvoiced fears, so similar to her own, and it was clearly written on his face. She looked stricken as she realized what it must sound like to him. “I didn’t mean… I’m not saying anything about you, James. You’re a great Auror.” Her voice trailed away, leaving them in silence for a bit.

“Shall we head home now?” He finally suggested carefully, and she nodded furiously, happy to get over this painfully awkward moment.

But just as he took hold of her hand to Apparate back to his place, there was a flare of green and someone stumbled out of her fireplace. 

“Ma! What are you doing here?” Emily gasped, her Scottish accent automatically becoming thicker. As Mrs Penelope Wood explained how she’d heard about the accident from Liam, James took the opportunity to observe how Emily resembled her mother in colouring and mannerisms. It was rather amusing to see how they both gestured animatedly while they talked, although it was less amusing when Emily wrenched her hand out of his grasp in order to do so.

“But where on earth are you going?” Mrs Wood seemed to finally notice Emily’s baggage.

“I…” Emily glanced at James, frantically trying to come up with a reason that wouldn’t sound utterly ludicrous to her mother but also wouldn’t worry her to no end. “I’m crashing at James’ place for a bit, just until the…the door is fixed.”

James tried very hard not to wince at her lame non-excuse, and instead bestowed Mrs Wood with his most winning smile.

“James Potter? Harry and Ginny’s boy?” He nodded and Mrs Wood patted him on the arm. ”Nice to finally meet you, my dear. But Em, darling, how hard can it be to fix a door?”

“Well, it would look pretty suspicious to my Muggle neighbours, Ma.” Emily said the first thing that came to mind. “They’ve been a little upset by the ruckus and I thought I’d leave for a bit until things quieten down.”

“Why, if that’s all, why don’t you just come home and stay with us?” Mrs Wood said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Oh Ma, you don’t want me running underfoot at home, coming back all sweaty and gross from Quidditch practice, or coming back late after drinks with the girls…”

“I’ve lived with your father for more than 25 years. I think I can handle that.” Her mother replied dryly, and James had to give her points for that. 

He cleared his throat. “Mrs Wood, the truth is, Emily and I-“

He was cut off by Emily elbowing him in the ribs fiercely and dragging him back a bit further from her mother. “What are you telling her?” She hissed.

“That we believe it wasn’t an accident.” He muttered, believing that Mrs Wood was made of stern stuff and wouldn’t faint upon hearing that her baby girl might be in danger. 

“Do you want to alarm her?” She glared at him.

“Oh!” Mrs Wood suddenly looked inexplicably pleased. “Why didn’t you tell me, Em?”

“What?” Emily’s gaze flicked back to her mother in dread.

“That you have a boyfriend.” Mrs Wood chided, although there was an element of glee in her tone of voice. “You really shouldn’t be keeping such important things from your own mother.”

Emily choked on air and James wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “I…no, Ma, that’s not-”

“No wonder you’d rather stay with him than with your own parents.” Mrs Wood continued blithely. “I’m not sure what your father would have to say about that, but I suppose it’s what all the young people do nowadays.”

Emily was torn between laughing hysterically and crying. She looked pleadingly at James, only to realise that he was grinning, that incorrigible tosser. “This isn’t funny!” She eyed him balefully.

“It’s a little funny.” He chuckled, and when she continued looking at him pointedly, he rolled his eyes and straightened his spine, presumably ready to correct Mrs Wood’s misunderstanding.

“I won’t interrupt the two of you any longer.” She waved them off cheerfully, a far cry from the worried woman who had Floo-ed in just minutes before. “Da will probably want to meet him at some point, Em. I suppose Liam knew about it and kept it a secret from us as well. That brother of yours!” She continued scolding the absent Liam as she grabbed a handful of Floo Powder from the fireplace shelf. “We’ll have to have you over for dinner some time, James! Bye, Em!”

Emily could only stare as her mother disappeared into the fire. “I cannot believe that just happened.” She groaned, rubbing her temple with her thumb.

“Look, let’s just go home and we’ll figure this all out later, yeah?” James prompted, taking her bag from her and slinging it on his shoulder. Emily nodded resignedly, allowing him to take her hand and Apparate them to his place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!


	3. Meeting the Potters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they share a common insecurity, an apartment, and a kiss.

James hadn’t been lying about having a spare bedroom. Emily had actually wondered briefly if he meant for her to sleep on the sofa or in some store cupboard of a room. But no, his apartment was quite a bit larger than Lily’s (where she’d considered crashing on the sofa because the thought of being in such close quarters with James was both thrilling and dreadful at the same time), and his spare bedroom was actually furnished properly.

“I used to live with Fred, until he moved in with Ellie. Sometimes Al or Lily stays over when they feel like it.” He explained, rubbing the back of his neck. “But it doesn’t happen that often, so I’m sorry if it’s a bit dusty. And sometimes Lily keeps random knick-knacks around, so it’s kind of cluttered. And of course there’s only one bathroom. And-” 

“James.” She turned and smiled at him. It was adorable what an anxious host he was. “It’s great. Thanks for letting me stay here.”

“Well, we can’t have you blowing up before you get to play for England.” His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Now, would it be alright if we wait for me to have a shower before discussing the whole misunderstanding with your mum?”

Her mind blanked out at the word ‘shower’, but she recovered her wits quickly enough to nod, trying not to imagine what James Potter looked like in the shower. _Stop objectifying him_ , she told herself sternly, _he’s not a piece of meat._

As she unpacked some of her belongings, she noted a photo of the Potter siblings on the chest-of-drawers and smiled unconsciously at how cute they all looked. Then her smile dropped and she sat down heavily on the bed. What was she doing? If people found out that she was living with James, they’d jump to all kinds of conclusions about their relationship. Lily would have a field day.

And surely it wasn’t the smartest idea for her to stay in the same place as the young man she was crushing on. She was honest enough with herself to realise how enjoyable it was to spend so much personal time with him, but admitted that it would do nothing for her long-term plan to _actually get over him_. She was just selfishly allowing herself a glimpse of what life with James would be like, and wouldn’t it be harder to let go of him after all this had blown over?

She shook her head as if to clear it of her jumbled thoughts, and decided she needed food to get her brain moving at its usual pace. James was still in the shower, and she popped out of his apartment briefly to get them both some dinner, since she doubted either of them had energy for cooking. And based on Lily’s stories, cooking wasn’t exactly James’ strong point.

When she got back she realized she’d forgotten to grab a key, so she knocked on the door. It was wrenched open a couple of seconds later to reveal a freshly-showered James with a look of consternation on his face. “There you are!” He huffed and ushered her in quickly. “I came out of the shower and you were just gone.”

“Aww, were you worried about me?” She teased lightly, expecting him to make some quip about her being too full of herself.

Instead, he nodded tightly. “After what happened today, I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

“I… I just went out to grab some dinner for us.” She held up the paper bags in front of her as if they would protect her from his frightening countenance. “I thought it would only take a minute. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Yeah, well, try not to do it too often, alright?” He took the bags from her and placed them on the dining table, the tension gradually leaving his posture. “Or I’ll be sporting white hair after all this is over.”

She smiled in relief at his weak joke. “It’ll make you look more distinguished. Especially if you grow a beard.” She joined him to eat, but there was something that she needed to get off her chest. “Look, um, I’m sorry if I kind of bummed you out by what I was saying back at my place, about my dad and Puddlemere.”

It took a second for him to get what she was referring to, and Emily continued once she registered his look of comprehension. “I was just upset because of something I heard at practice the other day, and when I thought you were saying the same thing, I guess I just wanted someone to yell at. The thought of this issue has been at the back of my mind ever since I got on the team, and I felt like I didn’t have anyone to talk to who’d understand where I was coming from.”

James raised his hand as if volunteering, accompanied by a wry smile.

She acknowledged it with a slight head tilt. “Yes, well, I could hardly compare myself to you. I mean, you actually had to go through so much training and testing just to become an Auror in the first place.” He looked like he wanted to interrupt but she barrelled on. “So I don’t think in the slightest that you became an Auror because of who your dad is. And I’m sorry I just let all my insecurities out like that.”

“You’re not the only one who feels insecure.” It wasn’t easy to admit this, especially when he liked to appear confident and calm most of the time. He rather thought, though, that Albus and Rose felt the same way at times, and empathized with him even though they never really talked about it. “It’s not easy when Dad’s still the head of the Department.”

She made a sympathetic face. “No, definitely not easy.” 

“I think… we just have to hope that the people who hired us were wise enough to do so based on our own merits.” He said slowly, and she nodded after a moment’s pause. “And I’ve only talked to Coach McKinnon a couple of times, but he seems like a sensible person who knows that his players are insanely talented.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re just saying that because you suck at Quidditch comparatively.”

“Is that so, Wood?” He elevated a brow, glad to see her spirits a little more uplifted. “Just wait until the next Potter-Weasley game.”

\--

When James reported for work the next morning, he noted that several witches – and even some wizards – were giving him odd looks, and in the case of some witches, looked rather disappointed for some reason. It was unnerving, but he managed to ignore it until lunch time, when he made a detour to the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Rose looked surprised to see him there. “And to what do I owe this unexpected visit?”

“What, I can’t take some time to say hello to my favourite cousin?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Your favourite cousin is Fred, you idiot. Stop wasting my time and tell me what you want.”

James tut-tutted. “You kiss Scorpius with that mouth? Wait,” He held up a hand in mock disgust, “I don’t want to know. Anyway, since you asked so nicely, I was wondering if you had any idea why people have been pointing and staring at me all morning.”

Rose paused in her writing and gave him a long look. “Are you going out with Emily Wood?”

He gaped at her in astonishment. “How did you- I mean…”

“So it _is_ true.” Her eyes widened, and while he was still gaping like a goldfish, she leaned over to her colleague’s desk and grabbed a copy of Witch Weekly. “She was spotted entering your apartment yesterday evening, apparently.”

He stared at the photo of Emily walking out of his apartment – which was probably when she’d gone out to get dinner – and then another photo of him hustling her inside. There was a bunch of text speculating on who this ‘mystery woman’ was and how important she was to James Potter and how they had spent the night at his place.

“Al told me about the accident and why she’s staying over at your place.” Rose looked unconcerned that she had essentially outed her cousin as someone who divulged Law Enforcement information. “I think it’s sweet that you want to protect her.”

“Sweet.” James echoed as he continued perusing the article, which was alarmingly accurate about his dating history and bemoaned the fact that he was now a ‘taken man’ after being ‘available’ for the past few years. 

“I suspected something was going on between you two.” She claimed smugly. “And Lily thought so too. Al didn’t believe me, though. That’ll teach him that I’m always right.”

“You don’t mind if I keep this, do you?” He made a hasty exit, ignoring Rose’s demands to have dinner with him and his new girlfriend.

\--

Emily stared at the incriminating article laid on James’ dining table. She had always been aware that the Potter family was constantly in the limelight, and that James had fangirls who might stalk him, but she never imagined that those few seconds of her going in and out of his apartment would have been captured on camera for everyone to see.

“Well, it’s not _obvious_ that it’s me.” She bit her lip and turned the magazine to view the photos from another angle.

“Yes, well, your family knows it’s you, and Rose and Albus also know.” James pointed out. “And they’ve probably told Scorpius and Lily and Merry by now. And someone will have inevitably mentioned it to my parents.”

“Great.” She slumped down on the chair. “This is fantastic.”

He found himself a little stung that she looked so distraught to be thought of as his girlfriend. Was it really such a bad thing? Then something occurred to him. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to ask – were you already in a relationship?” It would take a lot of explaining on her part if she already had a partner who might see this article and recognize her.

“What? No, of course not.” She muttered distractedly. 

He felt oddly pleased to hear that, but decided not to think too much about why that was. Also, what did she mean, ‘of course not’? It hadn’t been a stupid question. “Can I suggest something? I don’t think you’ll like it, but at least hear me out.”

“Okay.” She finally looked at him as he slid into the seat across from her.

“What if, just for a while, we…let other people believe we’re in a relationship? Just- just hear me out, alright?” James put up a hand to stave off her immediate negative reaction. “The only reason your parents haven’t dragged you home to stay with them instead of with me is because they think I’m your boyfriend.” 

Emily grimaced but acknowledged this to be true.

“And by now, our families all think we’re dating. So if we continue this pretence for a while, it’ll allow us to keep you safe here rather than going back to your apartment and continue without letting everyone know what it is we’re investigating, so we don’t blow our cover. And as soon as we get to the bottom of this case, we can just explain it to our close ones. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Not so sure about my mum.” She grumbled half-heartedly, but his logic was reasonable. “Okay.”

“Okay?” He looked at her carefully.

“Yeah.” She said determinedly. 

“Good.” His eyes crinkled as he grinned at her. “I’ll work on our background stories and brief you tomorrow.”

“ _Background stories_?” She echoed in surprise. Did all Aurors talk like this? “Is that really necessary?”

He lifted a brow. “And what are you going to do when someone from work asks you about how we got together? And if they keep prodding at you for a story even though you act like you’re shy about it?”

Emily thought for a moment. “I’ll tell them…” He gave her a challenging look and she squared her shoulders, never one to back down. “I’ll tell them that I’ve had a crush on you since we were in school together, but never dared to tell you because I knew you didn’t feel the same way. And then after not seeing each other for a while, we met at some event and got to talking, and you were all cute and oblivious even though I was obviously in love with you. But along the way you realized I was kind of cute too, and that we get along really well, and finally asked me out on a date about a month back, and we’ve been going steady ever since. The end.”

James stared at her in surprised awe, wondering how she’d managed to come up with that in the span of a few seconds. She looked a little uncomfortable now, and he decided it must be because she generally hated being deceitful.

“Is that good enough for you?” Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Yeah, that was pretty good.” He looked suitably impressed. “If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.”

\--

The next few days involved going to visit the other injured Quidditch players and trying to confirm a pattern between them. James often went by himself since Emily was busy at Quidditch practice, and figured that the victims would be more willing to talk to an Auror than a potential rival Quidditch player. 

Some were like Bryce Keegan who had refused what was sounding more clearly like bribes, some were like Emily who hadn’t otherwise been approached by anyone suspicious, and one or two had no recollection of what had happened. Those were actually a little worrisome, he reflected. On the plus side, he had managed to convince Savage that he wasn’t chasing after a dead end.

After doing work, he would Apparate home and get a tiny shock at seeing Emily in his apartment. It took some getting used to, for sure. And every day she would ask him about how his day went, what new information he’d discovered, and cook dinner for him. At first he protested, but she claimed that it was the least she could do since he was letting her stay with him and ‘doing all the legwork on the case’. 

It surprised James how much he enjoyed having her around. It occurred to him briefly that this was probably what it was like to have a wife – which was a bit odd, since he didn’t intend to get married in the foreseeable future. Perhaps this was a sign that he ought to get a housemate at some point.

“But surely you must miss having this place all to yourself.” Emily had insisted one time. “I know I would. There must be something you aren’t able to do or enjoy now that I’m intruding into your home.”

James shrugged. “Not locking the door to the toilet, maybe?” She made a face at the thought of that, which inspired him to continue by cheekily saying, “Or perhaps I miss being able to walk around naked.”

“ _What_?” She choked out, her cheeks burning at the mental image that had now sprung up. “You’re not serious.”

He waggled his eyebrows. “And how would you know?”

Indeed, it was like having a wife, but James didn’t quite realise the ramifications of this until his mother told him to bring Emily over for their family dinner. When he tried to make an excuse about them not being serious enough in their relationship for that, his mother had snorted and said, “If you’re serious enough to be living together, then I think we deserve to have just one meal with her.”

At that point, he had truly considered explaining the pretence to his father to get him to change his mother’s mind. But at the Auror office, a selfish part of him wanted to conduct his investigation single-handedly and not to receive any potential assistance from his father unless absolutely necessary. Of course, all he actually told Emily was that his mother had refused to take no for an answer, which was the truth.

Emily had protested about deceiving his family, whom she secretly adored, and came up with a dozen excuses before giving up and agreeing. “I don’t understand why your mum is so insistent.” She had sighed.

“Well, I’ve never given any indication that I intend to marry.” He decided to be frank with her, since she was going along with this charade for his benefit as well. “So Mum’s probably thrilled that I even have a girlfriend in the first place.”

“Oh.” She assumed he meant that in the same way most young men shuddered at the thought of a lifelong commitment. “How do you want me to act when we go there? Just for the record, I refuse to act like a horrible girlfriend just so they’ll be glad when we ‘break up’. I don’t want to be banned from your house in the future.”

“I doubt you’d succeed, anyway.” He observed her critically. “Mum and Albus already like you, and Lily would adopt you as her sister if she could.” 

She couldn’t help but beam at this compliment. “Lily and ‘Mily Potter. It has a ring to it.”

Huh. _Emily Potter._ It sounded right somehow.

\--

“I hate to be a nag, but we’re going to be late.” James called out, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Flooing barely takes a few seconds, Potter.” Her muffled voice came through the closed door, before it finally opened and she strode out. “Do I look alright?” She smoothed down her blue dress and looked up at him nervously.

Emily Wood in a Muggle dress was an unfamiliar sight for James, and like any other young man, he couldn’t help but appreciate how attractive she looked, especially with her auburn hair falling down past her shoulders rather than tied up in its usual ponytail. “You look…nice.” He managed to say as nonchalantly as he could, and then, when he realized he was still staring at her, he busied himself checking the wards on his apartment before they Flooed in to his parents’ house. 

Ginny hugged Emily rather enthusiastically when they arrived, which was surprising and made Emily feel even worse for deceiving the lady who had always been nice to her and happy to give her tips about Quidditch based on her experience as a Holyhead Harpy. Then James had placed his hand on the small of her back to usher her in, sending tingles up and down her spine.

It was a simple family dinner, to Emily’s relief, and Albus had brought Merry along as well so that Emily wouldn’t be the only non-Potter there. The conversation around the table never stopped, and mostly revolved around the topics of work and family. Merry and Ginny were full of amusing anecdotes about their friends and colleagues, while Harry mostly smiled benignly at everyone and made the occasional remark here and there.

Lily, on the other hand, was surprisingly quiet (for her, that is) and kept glancing at James and Emily, who had the sinking feeling that James’ sister could see through their ruse. Her expression was one of intense concentration when James had been pressed to share the story of how he and Emily had begun dating.

“Well, we’re all very happy about you two.” Ginny said while beaming at them. “Especially since we thought James was never going to find someone.”

“Mum.” Her eldest son made a face.

“I’m sure he had lots of witches chasing after him.” Emily defended her ‘boyfriend’ rather honestly.

“Mum’s talking about how James told her he had no plans to settle down for the next fifty years.” Lily explained. “He was being rather serious, if you forgive the pun.”

Emily turned questioningly to James, who looked slightly uncomfortable and replied, “That was before I realized how great she was.” His hand covered hers on the table for everyone to see.

Merry and Albus made identical cooing noises at that sweet statement, and Emily found herself blushing. Later on when she managed to pull James aside, she whispered to him how she thought Lily didn’t quite believe their little charade. She couldn’t, however, explain that it was because Lily was aware of Emily’s longstanding crush on James and was therefore less convinced that Emily had suddenly managed to attract James and be in a relationship without telling her thus far.

“We’ll be explaining it to them afterwards anyway.” James pointed out. “So it won’t really matter that much.”

“But…” She glanced at his family, who had all been so welcoming towards her, excited that she was James’ girlfriend, and imagined what the fallout would be if they found out it was all pretend. “Your mum’s going to be disappointed.”

“Disappointed?” Lily suddenly popped up in front of them, startling Emily into nearly falling backwards into James, who steadied her with an arm around her waist.

“Uh…” Emily gave James a panicked look.

“You know, I still can’t believe you two are together.” Lily tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I mean, I tried really hard to match-make you guys, but you’ve always been firmly platonic friends. Even now, you don’t really act like a couple.”

“Are you seriously asking us to _prove_ we’re a couple?” James raised a brow, and Emily desperately wished she had his calm. She was slightly distracted by the hand he had resting casually on her waist, which felt like a brand on her skin.

Lily met her brother stare for stare. “Yeah, a kiss would be nice, actually.”

James rolled his eyes, and without giving Emily any warning, he planted a light kiss on her forehead, which felt almost affectionate and made her stomach flip.

“You call that a kiss? What kind of a boyfriend are you?” Lily scoffed, noting the redness tinting Emily’s cheeks.

“We’re shy.” Emily blurted out, but Lily didn’t look like she bought that excuse.

“I always thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave.” Merry quipped, and Albus made a horrified expression at her. The ex-Hufflepuff gave him a challenging look and he obligingly dropped a kiss on her lips, making her giggle.

Lily ignored the ridiculous pair behind her and continued looking expectantly at James and Emily. James finally sighed and turned to face Emily, and for one agonizing moment, Emily thought he was going to swoop down and kiss her. Instead, he merely said, “You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with, Em.”

She realized he was giving her an out, and that he wasn’t going to allow his baby sister to pressure her into something she didn’t want to do, even for the sake of a deception. That was the amount of respect he had for her, and she felt incredibly touched by this. But she _was_ a Gryffindor, and never backed down from a challenge.

So she quirked her lips in a wry smile and replied, “It’s just a kiss, I guess.”

There was a flash of surprise in his eyes before he nodded and bent down to touch his lips to hers in a sweet kiss. It was over before she knew it, but her heart was beating so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of her chest.

The rest was all a blur for her – Lily’s mollified nod, Ginny hugging her and entreating her to come again, Albus wishing her good luck with James for a boyfriend, and Harry quietly welcoming her to their family – until they got back to James’ apartment.

“I hope my family didn’t scare you off.” James joked, but there was a hint of worry in his tone.

“They were lovely. Well, maybe Lily was a little scary.” She amended. “I thought she was going to say something about that kiss not being enough proof.”

“I didn’t think you could handle a real kiss from me.” He grinned. “It was brave enough of you to agree to that peck on the lips.”

“What d’you mean, ‘real kiss’? That was real enough!” She protested.

“Well, if you were my girlfriend, it’d be a lot more memorable.” His gaze took on a slightly predatory gleam, and she realized just how close he was standing to her. Then he brought up a hand to cup her face, running his thumb gently over the corner of her mouth. Her breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t move. The way he was looking at her was hypnotizing, and she found herself aching to feel his mouth on hers again.

But then he suddenly blinked and refocused his gaze, as if he’d just realized what he’d been doing, and let his hand fall back to his side. “Well, um, good night, I guess. See you tomorrow.”

She stared as he went back to his room, and then fled back to hers and shut the door quickly, leaning against it for support as she tried to breathe normally again. She berated herself for being so _stupid_ and getting so caught up in the whole charade that she’d actually wanted James Potter to kiss her. Lily was right – they were nothing more than friends, and it was foolish for her to hope for more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!


	4. blurring the line between pretence and reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which James has a rather unique philosophy for love, but doesn't quite know how to end this charade

Emily normally slept like the dead, which she attributed to practicing at the pitch until she was almost bone-tired every day. It was quite unusual for her to have to wake up in the middle of the night to use the toilet, and as she gingerly made her way in the dark to the bathroom, she vowed never to drink so much water just before going to bed again. 

Just as she was making her way back to her room, she heard a sound from James’ room. Her sleep-befuddled brain took a couple of seconds to register it as yelling, and she automatically rushed to wrench the door open and entered his room without knocking. He was indeed yelling something about ‘letting her go’ and thrashing on his bed and subsequently getting tangled up in his own bedsheets.

She reached him and gripped his bare shoulder. “James! Wake up!”

He woke up with a gasp and in one fluid movement, had her pinned down to the bed with one arm across her sternum and his wand pointed at her. She stared up at him in shock, fully aware of his warm body above hers. “J-James?”

The sound of her voice seemed to break him out of his reverie and he immediately released her. “Merlin, I’m so sorry, Emily!” He quickly lit the lamps in his room, and she blinked at the sudden light. He helped her sit up properly and looked at her anxiously. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head, still a little stunned at what had just happened. “I think you were having a nightmare. You were yelling and I woke you up, and then…” She made a vague gesture and belatedly registered that he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“Damn it.” He swiped a hand over his face. “I’m really sorry for doing that to you.” He eyed her carefully. “You’re sure I didn’t hurt you?”

“I’m sure.” She was touched by his concern, but was more worried about him. “Are you sure you’re alright? It sounded pretty bad when I came in.”

“It was…” He hesitated. “…nothing, just a bad dream.”

But the look in his eyes told her otherwise, and she decided to be bold. “You don’t always have to act like you’re tough and unflappable, you know. It’s okay to talk about it.” When he didn’t reply, she took a last stab at it and said, “I’ve been told that I’m a pretty good listener.”

He remained silent and she mentally chided herself for assuming that they were such close friends that he’d trust her enough to tell her about his nightmares. Sighing, she started to get up from his bed. 

“Wait.” He touched her arm and she sat back down, waiting patiently for him to begin. He ran a hand through his messy dark hair and she tried to ignore how nice his arms were. “When I was about eight years old, my family went out shopping in Diagon Alley one day.”

Well, that wasn’t quite what she’d expected to hear. It sounded like he was recounting a real event rather than what he’d been dreaming.

“And for some reason, I think Mum took Al with her to buy something, and left me and Lily with Dad. He was busy talking to some shopkeeper – I forget about what now – and I was supposed to keep an eye out for Lily. But I was obviously more interested in the stuff they were selling in that shop than watching out for her. And then I realized that she’d gone missing.”

He swallowed visibly, and Emily nodded, waiting for him to continue.

“And I looked around the shop, but she wasn’t there, and then I rushed out to the street and saw her being carried away by this man. So I yelled for my father, but they disappeared into the crowd before he could catch them.” His knuckles were white as he gripped the bedsheets. 

This was the first she’d ever heard of a kidnapping incident in the Potter family. “What happened?” She couldn’t help but lean forward in interest.

“Well, the wizard who’d kidnapped her was from a pureblood family, whose father had been put in Azkaban for crimes during the Second Wizarding War. And he was trying to force Dad to release his father by holding Lily hostage. He- he threatened to torture her more with every hour in which his demands weren’t met.” James remembered that awful Howler which had arrived at their house, and the look of terror on his mother’s face.

“Merlin.” She closed her eyes briefly. “That’s horrible.”

“Of course they managed to rescue her, mostly unharmed, and she doesn’t actually remember it. But those hours when we were waiting helplessly while she was being held hostage – those were the worst hours of my life.” He grimaced. “And all I could think about was how this wouldn’t have happened if I’d just done what my father said and bloody well _watched_ her.”

Emily laid a sympathetic hand on his arm, now understanding more clearly why James had always had such a protective nature towards his sister. “You were only a little boy then. There was nothing you could have done.”

He looked unconvinced. “Anyway, since then I’ve occasionally had nightmares about that incident. Sometimes it ends well, and sometimes it doesn’t.” He didn’t tell her about the dreams where he finds the kidnapper and bloodies him.

“It’s all in the past now.” She reminded him with a small smile. 

“It…wasn’t just that.” He hesitated again, and seemed to be evaluating whether she was someone to whom he could tell the next part. “It made me realise that someone who does what Dad does – it earns him a lot of enemies. It puts your loved ones in danger.”

It was, unfortunately, true, she acknowledged silently.

“You know how Mum and Lily were saying things about how I’m not interested in getting married?” It was as if he couldn’t help himself from talking, now that he’d started.

“Yeah…” She nodded slowly, wondering why he was suddenly bringing this up.

“I’m really not.” He looked particularly serious at this point. “Being an Auror isn’t a safe job, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder wondering when some dark wizard or witch is going to harm my family.”

All she could do was stare at him, aghast. “But- but isn’t that kind of drastic?” She asked weakly.

“I’ve thought it through.” He replied firmly. “It makes sense.”

“What about your father?” She felt the need to point out the obvious. “If he’d thought the same way, you wouldn’t _be_ here today.”

“After that day when Lily was kidnapped, he put tracking charms on all of us.” He informed her quietly. “And every summer when we came back from Hogwarts he would train us in defensive spellwork. Our house is Unplottable, and we don’t get visitors unless they’ve been vetted by my parents.”

“What if…” And here her voice became even smaller, “you fell in love with someone?” There was an awful sensation in the pit of her stomach as she hoped he couldn’t hear the tinge of desperation in her tone.

James looked a little disconcerted for a moment. “Well, that hasn’t happened yet. And that’s why I haven’t been in any relationships for years. It minimizes the chances of that happening.”

She managed a wobbly smile. “Does your family know about this?”

“I don’t think they realise how serious I am.” He frowned. “Mum was rather excited at your presence that night. She even wrote me a note saying how glad she was that I found someone like you.”

Emily’s heart swelled a little at that. She’d always liked Ginny Potter. “Do- do you think that, maybe, I dunno…maybe we should just pretend to end the relationship rather than tell them it was a ruse?” His gaze met hers questioningly and she sighed. “It’s just that, she’d be so disappointed if she knew we’d been faking it all along. Maybe she’d take it better if we just ‘broke up’.”

He considered her point. “Maybe you’re right.” Then he noticed her try to stifle a yawn, and chuckled. “Maybe we should sleep on it.”

“You’re right.” She said sheepishly and got up from his bed. “I’d best get back to my room.”

“Hey.” He got up as well, the sheets dropping to reveal his naked torso, to her dismay. She tore her gaze from his abs and tried to focus on his face. “Thanks for listening.”

She beamed at him. “Thanks for trusting me enough to share all that with me. Call if you need me to rescue you from the nightmares again.” She winked and left his room as he laughed.

\--

The investigation was taking longer than James had hoped, as he waited for the labs to conduct their analysis on what little evidence he’d been able to obtain from the other victims. It was also proving to be quite tricky to get facial recognition for the suspected perpetrators based on hazy memories.

On the bright side, having Emily as his fake girlfriend and housemate had some unexpected benefits. For one, his mother and sister had obviously ceased their previous matchmaking efforts. He hadn’t realized how annoyed he’d been by his mother’s undying hope that he’d finally settle down into a relationship, until she’d _stopped_.

He’d also forgotten how nice it was to have someone else at home to talk to, after Fred had moved out a year ago. Plus, Emily cooked dinner a lot better than Fred could, and was a cleaner housemate by far.

Maybe he ought to ask her if she wanted to make this a permanent arrangement, he mused.

Then, as if she was a Legilimens, the Puddlemere Keeper looked up at him, uncertainty written in her posture. “Hey, I have a favour to ask of you.”

“Fire away.” He was in an agreeable mood after all.

“So, I received a notification from the Department of Law Enforcement saying that I need to find a new place to stay. Apparently I’m at risk of exposure to the Muggles in my block. Statute of Secrecy and all that.”

“I see.” What an inconvenience for her, he sympathized.

“So until I find a new place to stay, would it be alright if I continue living here, and bring my stuff over? I’ll do it while you’re out so you’re not disturbed, and I’ll get rid of whatever doesn’t fit in your home, and I promise to keep it clean.” She got it all out in one breath and looked at him hopefully.

“Of course.” He found himself grinning. “Although I feel I should warn you that being my housemate comes with the conditions of doing all the cooking and cleaning for as long as you stay here.”

“Sure, no problem.” She looked so relieved that he couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“That was a joke, Wood.” He reached over and ruffled her hair, and she scrunched up her nose adorably in annoyance. “Just let me know when you want to grab your stuff and I’ll come and help you move it here. And you can stay here as long as you like.”

“That’s not neces- wait, what? Really?” She blinked. “You really don’t mind me living here?”

He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal, although the look she was giving him was making him feel ten feet tall. “You’re a great housemate.”

She finally laughed, a mix of delight and relief. “You’re just saying that because I cook dinner for us.”

“Without burning the house down, I might add.” He winked saucily, and narrowly avoided the cushion she flung at him.

\--

“I suppose we’ll be going to Fred’s wedding together.” James stared at their names on the glossy invitation in his hand.

“Oh.” Emily had temporarily forgotten about it, and tried to ignore the pang of guilt for unwittingly deceiving Fred as well. “Does that really mean anything, though? You’re his best man, so it’s not like we’ll be sitting together.”

“Good point.” He mused. “Just, you know, if anyone asks, we’re dating.”

“Exclusively?” She quipped, earning a puzzled look from him. “I mean, what if a strapping young gentleman propositions me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He replied automatically, not liking the idea of Emily accepting anyone’s romantic advances.

Her expression shuttered. “Yeah, I guess I’m not exactly the kind of girl who has guys lining up to flirt with her.” She laughed self-consciously, fingering her shapeless robes.

“What? No, that’s not what I meant.” He backpedalled, realizing how insulting he must have sounded. “I meant that you’re my girlfriend – you can’t be seen flirting with other guys. What would my mother think?”

“Oh yeah.” Not to mention that Lily would happily scratch her eyes out if she thought Emily was two-timing her brother.

“It wouldn’t hurt if you looked a little jealous when I dance with the maid of honour.” He smirked. “And I promise to beat off all the other guys who so much as wink at you.”

“Do you actually know how to dance?” She seemed to ignore the second half of what he’d just said.

James sniffed in offense. “Of course. I have been trained in all the gentlemanly arts.” When she continued looking sceptical, he rolled his eyes and admitted that Fred had forced him to learn it for the sake of the wedding. “Would you like to help me practice?” He exaggerated a bow and held out his hand.

“You just want me to fall on my face and make a fool out of myself.” Emily snorted, unwilling to fall for yet another Potter prank.

“I would never.” His eyes twinkled and without warning, he grabbed her hand and whirled her around, the momentum causing her to grip even tighter onto him in order to avoid doing what she had just mentioned. He began humming a waltz and madly spinning her around the crowded living room, nearly crashing into furniture several times.

“Okay…this is all…really funny,” She tried to catch her breath, but it was quite hard to do so when one was dancing and laughing at the same time. “…but I think…that’s quite enough. I’m getting dizzy!”

He obliged her and stopped moving, and she stumbled over the edge of a rug straight into him, sending them both falling down onto the sofa. It knocked the breath out of her, and she remained sprawled on top of him for a few moments. James was suddenly acutely aware of her body flush against his, and steadfastly tried to ignore how he could feel every movement of her chest as she breathed in and out. 

Then she placed her hands on his arms and pushed herself off him with an apology, leaving him feeling oddly bereft of warmth for some unfathomable reason. Calm down, he told himself sternly. _It’s been so long since you were with a girl that you’re getting confused about how you feel about Emily. She’s your mate, your school chum, not someone that you get to hug and_ \- His mind involuntarily recalled the kiss at his parents’ house, and then that weird, charged moment they’d had back at his apartment.

He shook his head vigorously, as if that would help to clear his jumbled thoughts. He needed to get a grip and remember that this was all a pretence. He didn’t want a girlfriend who would one day become a liability in his line of work. And it was a little frightening to realise just how much Emily could come to mean to him, and that there was no telling what he might do if she was ever hurt because of him.

_And what would she think of you if she knew what you’re capable of, and the things you’ve done?_ His traitorous mind supplied. But he ignored it for now.

\--

Emily had seen first-hand how Muggles had to move house without magic, and how much manual labour it required. It made her inordinately thankful for Levitating charms, Apparition and other handy spells she’d learnt the first time she had to move furniture. 

“Please be careful with that, James.”

“Yeah, no worries.”

True to his word, James had come with her to help in bringing the stuff over to his apartment, or _their_ apartment, she supposed it was now called. He was an efficient worker, but it seemed like he was quieter than usual, only speaking to ask her where she wanted certain things placed. In fact, he’d been like that for the past few days, and she hoped he wasn’t regretting accepting her as a housemate.

Hence, it was with some apprehension that she later approached him to tell him about the letter her mother had owled over, inviting both of them to come by for dinner. He looked a little doubtful, and said something about being rather busy with work at the moment. She knew this to be true – her case wasn’t the only case he was working on.

“I’ll try to make excuses to Ma, then.” Emily chewed on her lip. “Although she won’t be too happy, seeing as I’ve already put her off twice. Or maybe I’ll just go alone. It’s just as well you can’t come – Da would probably try to scare you off by making you try to score goals against him.”

“Actually,” He looked thoughtful now, “it might be good to go there and talk to your father, to see if he has any ideas about the case.”

She frowned. “But I don’t want them to worry about me.”

“We just won’t mention that you were a victim.” He shrugged dispassionately. “It should be fine.”

“Well, if you’re sure you’re free to go.” She glanced at him in concern, but he had already turned away to move another box into her room.

\--

“So, you’ve been dating my daughter for about two months now.”

“Yes sir.” James hadn’t felt this uneasy for ages. Oliver Wood had an intensity about him that was simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying.

“And now you’re living together.” Again, it wasn’t phrased like a question, but it felt like an interrogation nonetheless. The underlying _isn’t this relationship moving rather fast_ question was implied.

“It’s just a temporary arrangement until Emily can find a new place.” James explained, resisting the urge to squirm in his seat. “We’re…we’re not actually that far along in our relationship, sir.”

“Oh, but you two are such a cute couple.” Penelope Wood sighed, and Emily couldn’t help but blush, causing Liam to fake-gag. And thankfully, Liam jumped to the safe topic of Quidditch, allowing Oliver and Emily to talk shop, and James to subtly make some inquiries of his own. 

James was sure that their behaviour throughout dinner had successfully given the impression that they were in the beginnings of a relationship that was slow-going and not too serious, and that Oliver Wood needn’t be worried about James defiling his daughter in any manner. He hadn’t displayed all those physically affectionate gestures he’d shown when they visited his parents’ house previously.

So he was understandably surprised when Oliver cornered him for a private conversation, looking none too pleased with him. “Look, I realise that you’ve only been dating Emily for a short while, and you’re not too sure where this is going.” Oliver cut right to the point. “But I don’t know if she feels the same way you do. So I’m going to make myself clear. If you do anything to hurt my daughter, I will hunt you down and make sure you regret it. I don’t care if you’re Harry’s son, or Percy and George’s nephew. Is that understood?”

James had met many criminals in his years as an Auror, but the steely undertone of Oliver Wood’s voice chilled him to the bone. “The last thing I want to do is hurt Emily, sir. I- I care about her a great deal.” The sincerity in his tone surprised even himself, but it was the truth.

Oliver continued observing him just long enough for James to feel antsy before nodding and clamping his shoulder with a firm hand.

\--

When James returned home some nights later, he found Emily brimming with barely-concealed excitement. “Did something happen today?” He queried, noting the piece of official-looking parchment in her hand.

“I’ve been selected to be reserve Keeper for the English National team!” She announced, grinning from ear to ear as she waved the parchment up and down.

“That’s brilliant!” He enthused, barely holding himself back from sweeping her up in a bear hug. “Congratulations, you totally deserve it!”

“Thanks! Da’s taking us out to celebrate tonight.” Then her smile dimmed faintly. “I already told him you’re not free tonight and that we’re going to celebrate another time, so you don’t have to come and act in front of my parents again.”

He wasn’t quite sure if there was any bitterness in her tone there, but also found himself a little disappointed that she’d automatically excluded him. Then again, theirs was just a fake relationship, so why should she want him there with her family? And really, they were seeking to portray a temporary relationship that would soon break up, so there was no point to his going along.

But it didn’t feel right to leave it at that, so the next day when she got back, he’d gathered Lily, Albus and Fred together for a hastily-planned congratulatory dinner with cake. She was utterly surprised by the gesture, and even though his rational brain told him he really oughtn’t be giving his family more opportunities to assume the relationship was heading somewhere serious, plus giving Emily and himself more stress in deceiving them, he did it anyway, and felt himself uplifted by how happy he’d made her.

He also wondered if she was now safe from any attacks, since she’d already been confirmed for the team and was due to start practices with the rest of the selected players in a few weeks’ time. He had managed to get an idea of who one of the suspects was, thanks to persistent Pensieve memory-tracking and some facial-recognition charms the investigation lab had helped him with.

And a few days later, Emily was waving another piece of parchment around. “I’ve been invited to attend this dinner for the National team, and I think members of the League Headquarters will be there, as well as the selection committee.” She looked at him meaningfully. “This might be our chance to identify one of the perpetrators.”

“Excellent.” He nodded approvingly at her. “But am I invited too?”

“Well, it says I’m allowed to bring a plus one.” She said mock-thoughtfully. “I wonder who to ask.”

“Oh, oh, pick me, please.” He deadpanned. “It would mean ever so much to me. I simply must get all my Quidditch posters autographed.”

“Alright, since you asked so nicely.” She grinned and handed the invitation over to him to peruse. “I hope you own nice dress robes.”

\--

Okay, so while James had been joking about getting autographs, he couldn’t help but be a little star struck at the dinner full of both current and ex-players from all over Britain. “Oh my- that’s Cavendish, isn’t it? I used to try and copy his moves for- wait a minute, is that Indira Abraham? She’s playing for England? I love her!”

Emily was torn between amusement at how he was acting like a fanboy, but also a tiny bit of jealousy that he was so taken with all these famous Quidditch players, rather than paying attention to her. Then she blushed and immediately felt ashamed for even thinking of comparing herself to the more experienced players. After all, she was just a reserve, who’d been chosen after one or two other potential Keepers had dropped out of the running.

With that sobering thought, she decided to ignore her stupid feelings about her pretend boyfriend and focus on smiling at the appropriate people and keeping an eye out for anyone who might be suspect. She rather congratulated herself for turning a blind eye to one of the reserve Chasers, a pretty blonde who was quite blatantly flirting with James, who looked like he was enjoying the attention.

The dinner turned out to be as boring as she’d expected, including a lot of speeches from the League committee about how they were going all out for the upcoming World Cup in order to secure glory for Great Britain. She was more interested in finding out the logistics of practices and the fast-approaching qualifiers. It would be utterly regretful if they didn’t even manage to qualify to participate in the World Cup, which had happened before.

Then halfway through a speech, James nudged her and tilted his head towards a table some way away. “That’s him.”

Emily didn’t recognize the older man by sight, but he looked rather important, as well as the people he was sitting with. “Okay. What’s the plan?”

James’ plan was disappointingly simple – Emily was to find out who the man was, and James would find a way to speak to him regarding the evidence he had. The first part was achieved very easily by Emily simply asking her coach about the people on that table, and he was obliging enough to identify the man as one Oscar Bagman, an extremely wealthy supporter of Quidditch who contributed a lot of money towards the British Quidditch League and was therefore invited to dinners such as these.

The second part required some patience on their part, since Bagman seemed to always have someone waiting to talk to him, and James couldn’t very well just go up to him and drag him away. In the end, Emily pulled James along with her and managed to insert herself into a conversation Bagman was engaged in, and James couldn’t help but be impressed at how she’d managed it.

Bagman was aware of who she was, or rather, who her father was, and only had nice things to say about Oliver Wood. His eyes lit up in recognition when she introduced ‘her boyfriend, James Potter, son of Harry Potter’ to him. 

He was a lot less pleased when James revealed his true intentions.

\--

So the case against Bagman was underway, while James continued trying to uncover any other possible perpetrators. He rather supposed that there was no longer any need to go on with the fake relationship, but there never seemed to be a good time to bring it up. How awkward would it be to write to a bunch of people and say,"Hey, just to let you know, we were in a fake relationship but we're not anymore, sorry for the misunderstanding" ? 

Clearly Emily was right in suggesting that it would be far easier to fake a breakup. But if they did that then everyone would think it weird that she was still living at his place, and he couldn’t in good conscience kick her out before she found a new apartment. And it didn’t look like she had much time to do that, what with her National team practices taking up so much of her energy and time.

Fred’s wedding day was soon approaching, and James was rather caught up with helping out with preparations. Between Emily’s late practices and his running errands for Fred and heading the case against Bagman, the two housemates saw rather little of each other. Both of them were usually exhausted by the end of the day, and the few times they were able to have dinner together were usually spent silently eating. 

One of these nights, however, saw a rather protracted conversation occur after dinner. It began with Emily reading a letter from her mother. “Oh. Ma says she wants to have dinner-”

“Look, I don’t have time to eat with your family.” James rudely interrupted her. “I’ve got to get those party favours, and run down to the lab and-”

“James.” She stared him into silence. “I wasn’t going to ask you to go. I was going to say that I won’t be able to help you collect those corsages from the store that afternoon like you asked me to, unless you don’t mind delaying it for a day.”

“You- oh.” He deflated abruptly, and then rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m kind of bogged down by a lot of things, and it feels like we’ve got a lot of obligations, you know?”

“Don’t worry, Potter.” Emily said tiredly. “Just a little while more, and then you can tell everyone you broke up with me, and everything will go back to normal.”

James blinked. “What?”

She eyed him. “Well, we’ll need some sort of reason for not ‘dating’ anymore pretty soon. And the natural conclusion is that you decided to end the relationship. You can just make up something vague, like, ‘she wasn’t the right one for me’. People say that all the time.”

“Maybe you dumped _me_ instead.” He suggested, thinking it only fair to bring up another equally viable option.

Again, she gave him a look that sort of seemed to say she didn’t think much of his intelligence. “I doubt anyone would believe that any girl could actually dump James Potter, especially a girl like me.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” He demanded, getting more confused by the minute.

Emily gritted her teeth. “I mean, I’m not exactly the kind of girl whom people like you go out with in the first place-”

“And what kind of girl do you presume people like me tend to go out with?” James interrupted her. He hadn’t dated anyone for a long time now and wasn’t sure how she got to be so presumptuous.

“I don’t know!” She burst out in annoyance. “Gladrags models, perhaps? Or maybe some high-flying witch in the Ministry? Or…” She couldn’t actually think of any more examples. “Not… girls like me.” She waved a hand vaguely in front of herself.

His brows furrowed in confusion. “When have I ever dated a model?” The fact that that was the first question out of his mouth was evidence of how tired he was.

She paused for a moment. “Okay, maybe you haven’t. But you just have to look at all the girls you’ve ever dated in Hogwarts to get the picture. Every guy wants girls who are gorgeous and preferably intelligent. You, James Sirius Potter, just happen to be famous and popular and good-looking enough to have almost every witch in her twenties willing to give an arm to be your girlfriend.” She couldn’t believe she had to _explain_ this to him. How ridiculous was this?

He tried to process her words, a little gobsmacked that she’d actually seriously told him that he was handsome.

Taking his silence as assent, she decided to end the conversation. “Hence, it will be unbelievable that an unremarkable witch like me would choose to break up with you. And if we don’t want to have to explain our entire deception to everyone, then the sensible thing to say is that you broke up with me. Really, it’s very simple.”

“You’re not unremarkable.” James finally said quietly.

Emily stared at him in astonishment, rendered speechless by the unexpected compliment. 

“You are _not_ unremarkable, in any way.” He repeated, more forcefully this time. His hands came up to grip her shoulders, as if he could shake it into her.

“You… you don’t have to try and _comfort_ me.” Her voice trembled a little. It was awfully hard to continue this conversation when his hands were distractingly warm on her shoulders and he was saying such odd things. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments. There’s nothing wrong with being average.”

James blinked as he observed the young woman in front of him – the auburn colour of her hair, the green eyes that usually twinkled with good humour, and a face that, while not classically beautiful, was full of character and often had a charming smile. He could feel the muscles in her arms from years and years of hard Quidditch practice – a reminder of her strength of will, discipline and perseverance. But more importantly, he saw a brave, principled young woman who loved her friends and family fiercely.

“You’re an amazing person, Emily Wood.” He smiled wryly. “Not average in the slightest.”


	5. A change of perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is an argument, a lot of Stunning, a rescue, and some good advice.

It took some effort on Emily’s part not to tear up as Eleanor Haywood (soon to be Weasley) walked down the aisle, and she saw the look of wonder and joy on Fred’s face. It had been a bit of a surprise when he’d first asked her out at the end of their seventh year at Hogwarts, since Emily hadn’t even known they were familiar with each other. It had been a bit of a contrast to see the outspoken and fun-loving Fred dating the quiet and gentle Eleanor, but they somehow complemented one another and evened each other out.

Emily swiped her eyes discreetly as Eleanor’s father joined his daughter’s hand to Fred’s. She couldn’t help but notice the enormous grin on James’ face as he stood next to his best friend and cousin, looking unfairly handsome in his formal black robes. She blushed slightly when she realised she’d told him he was good-looking a few nights ago. Merlin, how obvious could she be about her crush?

The ceremony was short and sweet, while the reception was upbeat and entertaining, especially James’ best man speech that was full of anecdotes about Fred’s misspent youth and how Eleanor was the best thing to happen to him. James’ tone was sincere as he wished Fred and Eleanor all the happiness of marital bliss.

And it didn’t sit well with Emily that this was the man who had so firmly declared that he would rather not find the love of his life in order not to have any complications of family interfering with his job. In fact, she still had a small frown on her face when he came up to her and explained that Fred had insisted on him dancing with her. “Thanks for pretending to be jealous of the other girls I had to dance with.” He joked. “It really does wonders for my reputation.”

“No problem.” She muttered, and he realised that something was bothering her.

“What’s the matter?” He sat down instead of pulling her to the dance floor, wondering if she wasn’t feeling well.

“All that stuff you said in your speech about true love and happiness and how they’re going to support one another through thick and thin…” Emily began, hesitated, and then continued when he nodded bemusedly. “…if you really believe all that, then why aren’t you willing to try and be in a relationship with someone you care about, even if it’s difficult?”

His expression hardened. “Look, I’ve explained my reasoning for that.”

“But you’re wrong!” She couldn’t help but exclaim in frustration, even though he was starting to look very annoyed. “Love is worth all that- that worry and extra protection. Look at your father, and the other Aurors with families, and Ted Lupin – they’ve all clearly decided that being committed to their wives and families is just that valuable. Why can’t you see it?”

“And I suppose you know better about this than I do?” His voice had gone cold now. “I’m the Auror here, in case you forgot.”

“Aurors aren’t made of stone. You can’t just _make_ yourself not ever fall in love.” She retorted. “You’re just choosing to run away from the commitment of a relationship rather than fighting to be with someone you love!”

“What, someone like you?” He sneered. “You’ve been with me for all of a few months and you think you’re the special someone who’ll make me change my mind about the whole thing?”

She stiffened at that painfully accurate jab, and suddenly realised that a few people had overheard their conversation, including a shocked Lily Potter. “Clearly not.” She hated the way her voice trembled. “I suppose…this isn’t going to work out between us after all. Goodbye, James.”

She got up from her seat and left quickly, Apparating back to the apartment. Ignoring the tears welling up in her eyes and dripping down her face, she began hastily packing whatever she could into a bag. She’d just have to stay with her parents until she found a new place, since James was clearly tired of her and her opinions on his life.

\--

James had been unusually moody lately, Auror Savage noted. He wasn’t sure what had happened to make his protégé like this, considering that the cases that he was handling all appeared to be proceeding smoothly. The younger Auror kept fidgeting at his desk, looked like he had lost focus, and was bordering on rude with the way he answered Savage’s questions almost monosyllabically.

Savage decided to point this out to the chief, who clearly knew what was up with his son, since he didn’t look surprised and merely asked Savage to send James into his office. “Would you like to explain what’s going on with you?” Harry asked without preamble.

“Nothing.” James shrugged insincerely.

“Does this have to do with that argument you and Emily had at the wedding?” Harry raised a brow, and James stiffened.

“I don’t see how that’s relevant, sir.”

“It’s relevant to me as Head Auror when your supervisor thinks it’s affecting the quality of your work.” Harry said sternly, but his expression softened at James’ wince. “And it’s relevant to me because you’re my son, and I don’t like it when you’re unhappy.”

Harry’s frankness shocked James out of his current state. His father wasn’t a particularly sentimental or mushy person as far as he knew, and it was disconcertingly touching to hear him say that, as opposed to berating him for screwing things up with his ‘girlfriend’. “I…” He closed his eyes for a second before giving in and dropping onto the chair opposite his father. “…we aren’t together anymore. I think.”

To Harry’s credit, he didn’t comment on the second sentence. “What happened?”

“I guess I wasn’t ready to commit to a long-term relationship.” There was something about Harry’s questioning look that made James admit his philosophy about not getting into serious relationships due to the dangers of the Auror life. Harry’s expression became progressively graver.

“I guess it’s not surprising you think that way.” Harry mused. “I used to think that way as well.”

“I know.” Of course he did. Anyone who read his biography would. “And while I owe my existence to the fact that you didn’t continue on that path,” here he tossed his father a wry grin, “I still think I’m right. And other Aurors feel that way.”

“Some people are suited to that kind of life.” Harry said agreeably. “But if this is how you feel, why did you even start going out with Emily? It sounded like she wasn’t aware of this until recently, and that wasn’t fair to her.”

There was no way James could think of talking his way out of this without appearing like a totally selfish jerk, and so he grudgingly told his father the truth about the faux relationship. “And we agreed that we’d eventually pretend to break up but remain friends, but…that argument wasn’t planned.”

“You both looked very upset.” Harry sighed.

“I just- she doesn’t get it!” James burst out in frustration. “She was going on and on about _love_ , and how it’s worth the danger and anxiety…”

“So, hypothetically, if you thought that distancing yourself from Albus and Lily in the future would make them less likely to be targets for Dark wizards, would you do it?” Harry steepled his fingers and watched his son carefully.

“Of course not.” James replied indignantly. “They- nothing would be worth not having them in my life. I’d just ensure that they were properly protected and capable of defending themselves.”

“That’s what I realised as well, especially about your mother.” Harry smiled. “A wise wizard once told me that love is one of the most mysterious forces in this world, but that it also has a powerful effect on magic. And it’s not for me to say whether you or Emily is right, but I do think you owe it to yourself to decide who you love enough that life is not worth living without them, and whom you’re willing to spend the rest of that life protecting.”

\--

Emily groaned as she forced her eyes to open, feeling unusually groggy, and her head was throbbing painfully. Perhaps she was hungover – that might explain why she was waking up with no idea where she was. She gradually became aware that her hands were bound behind her back and that she was tied down to a rather uncomfortable chair. “What the hell?”

The last thing she remembered was walking around the neighbourhood in the evening, and then somehow she’d ended up here. Fear started to coil in the pit of her stomach as she tugged uselessly at her bonds. And then she realized that her wand wasn’t on her person.

Then the door opened and a menacing-looking wizard walked in. “Ah, I see you’ve finally woken up.”

“Where am I?” She demanded immediately. “Why have you brought me here?”

“Let’s just say that Mr Bagman doesn’t take kindly to being investigated by the Auror Department.” He raised a brow. “I’m sure your boyfriend Mr Potter will gladly consider dropping the charges in light of your presence here.”

She gaped at him for a moment, dumbstruck by the fact that she had apparently been kidnapped as a hostage to force James to give up the case against Bagman. How on earth was this happening to her? “You’re threatening him? Are you crazy? That’s never going to work!”

He shrugged, not at all perturbed by her outburst. “It’s been our experience that people tend to be quite willing to do as we ask when presented with…the right incentives, shall we say.”

“There’s no way he would give in to your threats.” She replied staunchly.

“You know, Miss Wood, if I were you I’d hope that Mr Potter turns out to be the sort of person who would.” He turned to leave. “Because really, if he doesn’t then what use is there in keeping you alive?”

\--

The Howler shredded itself before James could stop it, and he sank down onto a chair. The guilt he’d felt for how he’d caused her to leave was now compounded by the fact that she’d been abducted for the sake of the investigation _he’d_ started.

Obviously, he couldn’t abandon the case – that went against all the honour he had as an Auror. And now that Bagman had done something as despicable as this, there was no way in hell James was letting him walk away scot-free. But how were they going to find Emily and get her back safely?

His blood ran cold as he recalled the Howler’s threats to harm Emily if he didn’t concede with their requests. This was _exactly_ what he’d been talking about previously when he said he had no intentions of getting romantically involved with anyone, and it had happened anyway. The irony was that she probably now understood the reality of the dangers associated with being an Auror, just when he had been close to changing his own mind.

So if he didn’t manage to rescue her, she’d be lost to him. But even if he did, why would she want to be in any way connected to him after that? He grimaced before finally getting to his feet and trying to formulate a plan. Moping around never got you anywhere, after all.

\--

“Really, this is all pointless.” She sighed. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been in this room, but they hardly fed her and her strength was waning. “He’s not going to give up just because you’ve got me here.”

“If he’s anything like his father, he’s probably the type to do anything to save those he loves.” The wizard said in a matter-of-fact manner.

“He doesn’t love me.” She muttered, but he heard it anyway and rolled his eyes.

“My dear Miss Wood, we have it on good authority that you’ve been living with your boyfriend for the past few months. Even if-”

“He’s not my boyfriend, alright?” She finally cried out. “He never was.”

Now he looked a little concerned. “We must have Stunned you a little too hard if you think I’m going to buy such a ridiculous lie. Need I remind you how you introduced him to Mr Bagman at the National Team welcome dinner?”

Oddly, she now had a vague recollection of this man standing near Mr Bagman that night, although she hadn’t taken much notice of him then. “We weren’t really in a relationship. It was just a pretence for the sake of the investigation,” she admitted dully.

He looked as if he couldn’t quite believe such a ludicrous thing, and she couldn’t blame him for it. It _had_ been a stupid thing for her to go along with the deception when she’d already been half in love with James. What had it accomplished except to falsely get her hopes up and then have them dashed?

“None of it was real.” Now she seemed to be talking more to herself. “I was just pretending to be his girlfriend for safety reasons. And he was using it to help with investigating other Quidditch personnel and have someone at home to do the chores.” She laughed hollowly. “And after our _spectacular_ breakup, I really doubt he’d risk his hard-earned Auror reputation just for this.”

He frowned at her. “You’re either a very good liar or just a sad young woman. Anyway, even couples who break up still would be emotionally compromised, I’m sure.”

“Look, you abducted me when I was in my parents’ neighbourhood, yeah?” She pointed out tiredly. “You see, I don’t even live with James Potter any longer. This is all an exercise in futility.” 

When he didn’t look convinced, she decided to try a different tack. “The case has already proceeded so far that there’s no way Bagman isn’t going to be investigated, and it’s not like James can just make the evidence disappear. Surely Bagman’s rich enough to get away with a fine, and nobody was too gravely injured or died, so he won’t have to go to Azkaban. But if you continue to keep me here or hurt me, then when they press charges against your employer, the consequences will be far worse.” 

She rather hoped he couldn’t tell that she was making all this up. For all she knew, there might actually be a way to let Bagman get away without being investigated, but she refused to believe it. Her interrogator considered her argument before leaving the room, and she couldn’t help but tear up in frustration.

\--

It hadn’t taken long for Oliver Wood to storm in to the Auror Department and demand that James tell him what had happened to his daughter. Harry quickly ushered his friend into his office, and Oliver ranted about how James had clearly broken his daughter’s heart, that she hadn’t been her usual cheerful self at home, and now had gone missing.

James then swallowed uncomfortably and told them about the Howler he’d received regarding the case. Oliver grew pale as he realised what potential danger lay ahead for Emily, while Harry took it in his stride. Unfortunately, the now-shredded Howler wasn’t enough to authorise a search warrant, and Bagman owned enough properties so that searching them all would give Bagman enough time to relocate Emily. 

“Our research department has ways to track the location of specific wands nowadays.” James suggested tentatively, having had more time to think about this. “We could use that to pinpoint her location.”

“Then we can get a search warrant?” Oliver pressed.

James glanced at his father, who exhaled slowly. “It might not be enough.”

\--

“Remind me why I’m here again?” Louis Weasley huffed as he peered over James’ shoulder at the unremarkable house.

“Because sometimes Aurors have their hands tied by protocol and the only way to get anywhere is to go off the grid.” James replied shortly without looking back at his cousin. “And since Fred’s on his honeymoon and I can’t involve other Aurors in this, you’re the next in line.”

“You could’ve asked Al.” Louis grumbled good-naturedly. “He’s pretty good at defensive spells.”

“Yeah, but he’s a pacifist at heart.” James snorted. “He’s going to be Minister some day, and I refuse to potentially jeopardise his future career.”

“Thanks for belittling my career, man.” Louis replied with a roll of his eyes. He supposed he could excuse his cousin’s rudeness in this instance since it was his girlfriend who was being held captive. He’d never seen James so single-mindedly focused before, and the undercurrent of fury he could feel simmering underneath James’ expressionless face was beginning to scare him.

Their conversation was cut short by the gate opening to allow a car to exit. James muttered a few spells to disarm protective wards before rushing in with Louis under the Invisibility Cloak before the gate closed. As they made their way into the house, James thanked his lucky stars that even though Louis was only one-eighth Veela, he like his siblings had somehow inherited a natural sort of grace from that which made him especially good at sneaking around.

“Where now?” Louis whispered.

James fiddled with a device which Hugo had invented that was supposed to be able to detect the presence of wizards and witches, but could be tweaked to be more specific. In this case, James had adjusted the settings to ‘witch’ and ‘twenties’, and the little rod on the device moved to point in an unerring direction, which they followed.

It led them down a set of stairs to a basement, but before they opened the door, James took out an Extendable Ear and slipped it under the door. They could hear the sound of Emily arguing with a male voice, and then a scream of pain. The blood drained from James’ face and he blasted the door open rather than sneaking in as their original intention had been. As they burst in, they saw Emily tied to a chair that had fallen down on its side, her auburn hair messy and damp with sweat. 

James took one look at Emily’s fallen body and let out an inarticulate cry. He Stunned the wizard and Disarmed him with blindingly quick moves while Louis dashed over to Emily and with a muttered ‘Relashio’, undid her bonds. “Rennervate!” He pointed his wand at her, and to his relief, she came to immediately. 

“Louis?” She blinked, too weak to do anything but stay there on the floor. She turned her head at the sound of a sickening crunch, and realised that James was currently beating her captor to a pulp with his bare hands. The expression on his face was terrifying and she couldn’t believe this was the self-possessed and collected young man she knew. “James!”

“James, stop it!” Louis yelled, whisking the wizard away with a flick of his wand. “Pull yourself together, mate! We need to get out of here.”

“Not without him,” James growled, levitating the unconscious and bloody wizard. Then he seemed to realise how he sounded and turned to see a conscious Emily supported by Louis, with a look of shock on her face. “Emily. Are you-” He moved forward and reached out a hand to touch her, but she flinched back and he dropped his hand. “Let’s go.”

\--

If it hadn’t been a serious situation, Scorpius would have found it amusing how anxious James appeared to be as he paced up and down the corridor while Emily was being examined by a Healer. Scorpius wasn’t quite sure what was going on between the two, since Rose had told him that they had had a public disagreement at Fred’s wedding which saw Emily leaving in a distraught manner.

But Scorpius was of the opinion that getting truly upset with another person was evidence that you cared a lot about them and their opinions, which had been the case with himself and Rose during their school years. He hadn’t realised how important she’d become to him until he was in too deep, and he wondered vaguely if that was how it was for James and Emily.

Oliver and Penelope Wood had finally made it to St Mungo’s, and as they rushed up to the medical cubicle occupied by Emily and the Healer, Oliver gripped James’ shoulders tightly. “How is she?”

“I think she’ll be okay.” James reported, although he still looked anxious. 

“You did a good job, son.” Oliver said gruffly, to James’ surprise. “Thank you.”

“It was my fault to begin with, sir.” James deflated slightly. Then the Healer walked out from behind the curtain and informed them that other than being dehydrated and exhausted, Emily was fine and could be discharged within a few hours. The three of them thanked the Healer, and some of the tension in James’ shoulders dissipated. “I’ve got to go and document this report at the office now, so…” He made the excuse and hurried off, not feeling like he could actually face Emily at this moment, and half afraid that she would be repelled by that awful side of him she’d seen earlier on.

Oliver exchanged a confused glance with his wife, but their overriding concern was for their daughter, who gave them a weak smile when they came into the bay. Penelope hugged her so tightly she thought she’d expire from lack of air. “They rescued me. James and Louis Weasley.” She informed her parents. “Are they still here?”

“We only saw James when we got here, and he said he had some report to write, so he left.” Penelope explained.

Emily felt an acute sense of disappointment. Of course he hadn’t stayed. He’d already gone to all that effort of rescuing her; what more could she ask?

\--

Teddy Lupin had recently returned from a mission to Ireland where he’d been investigating some potion smugglers, and as was his habit, he was about to invite James out for a drink. Funnily enough, this time James asked him if they could meet up, and Teddy guessed that his god-brother had something he wanted to talk about.

And sure enough, after an admirable twenty minutes of Teddy regaling James with stories from his latest trip, he finally took pity on the younger man. “Would you like to tell me about it?”

“About what?” James looked confused. 

Teddy smiled. “About whatever’s been on your mind since you asked me to meet you.”

James flushed, embarrassed at being read so easily by the older Auror. He recounted how Emily had been abducted just because she was thought to be his girlfriend (he admitted that they’d pretended to be dating) and how it just seemed to prove that he was right about not getting attached to anyone because of the dangers it entailed. 

“I used to think about it more selfishly.” James admitted. “I didn’t want to constantly feel like I’m looking over my shoulder, waiting for something to happen. But after this, it hit me that it was also just really unfair to expect my- my girlfriend or wife or child, whatever, to have to live with that fear too. But Dad’s opinion is that there are people worth all that. Like Mum, and Al and Lily. And Tori and Baby.”

The last bit was clearly directed at Teddy, whose expression was all-too-understanding. “Are you asking me why I chose to marry my wife?” He asked amusedly. “Because the only thing I can tell you is that I’m madly in love with her.”

James made a grossed-out face, no matter how juvenile it was. “Thanks.”

“Right now, it sounds like you think that the way to keep people safe is to distance yourself from them.” Teddy raised a brow and James nodded. “And yet even though you had seemingly ‘broken up’ with Emily, she still got abducted when she was away from you.”

James’ knuckles went white as he gripped his glass. “Yes.”

“Has it occurred to you that perhaps the way to keep people safe is to keep them next to you?” Teddy pointed out with a smile. “For example, I always make sure I have a way to communicate with Tori, that she lets me know when she won’t be at home for whatever reason, and that she has people to look out for her when I’m away. I helped her work on her defensive spells. And she knows that I would do anything to protect her and our baby from harm.”

“Oh.” James felt rather at a loss for words. Teddy was right, of course. Wasn’t that what James’ father had done as well?

\--

Penelope Wood opened the door to see James standing there with a bunch of flowers. “Hi Mrs Wood, is Emily in?”

She beamed and ushered him, clearly not at all cross like Oliver was at him for upsetting Emily. “Em didn’t tell us you were coming over, James.”

“Ah, it’s a surprise.” He smiled weakly.

“Oh, aren’t you sweet.” Penelope chuckled, and then pulled him into an unexpected hug. “Thank you for rescuing our little girl.”

“It was my fault she got kidnapped in the first place.” James shook his head. “I’m sorry it happened.”

“Nonsense, you can’t blame yourself for the actions of dark wizards.” Penelope waved it off as if it was that simple. And maybe it was, James mused. “Go on up.”

James blinked in surprise that she was letting him go upstairs to Emily’s room rather than getting her to come down, but trudged up anyway. Her door was easily identifiable by the cute letters spelling out her name, which were zooming around on cartoon broomsticks. He knocked on the door.

The door swung open. “Hey Ma, what’s up?” Emily looked up from where she was spinning a Quaffle on her finger, and dropped it on her toe with a squeak when she saw James staring at her apprehensively. “J-James! What are you doing here?”

She looked a little thinner than he remembered. “I, uh, came by to see how you were doing. And to give you these.” He thrust out the flowers in front of him awkwardly, and she stared at him for a few seconds before realising he was waiting for a response and hastily took them.

“Thanks.” She smiled, and then a suspicious look crossed her face. “These aren’t from your uncle’s store, are they?”

His lips curved in a wicked grin. “Of course not. I wouldn’t want you to lie awake at night wondering whether your flowers are suddenly going to ensnare you, would I?” He loved how she tried to discern whether he was bluffing her by eyeballing him and the flowers. 

In the end she sighed and transfigured something into a vase to put the flowers in. “I guess I’ll have to trust you.”

His smile lessened. “I wanted to apologise.”

She looked confused. “Apologise? What for?” Then she realised he was still standing and hurriedly drew up a chair for him to sit down while she perched on the edge of her bed.

He gently shut the door so that her mother wouldn’t hear them. “Firstly, I was the one who suggested that we pretend to date. And in doing so, you got abducted and mistreated. So I’m sorry I let that happen.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” She hastened to assure him. “And to be fair, you were trying to tell me this is what you were afraid would happen if you ever let yourself get attached to someone for real. Now I know you weren’t exaggerating.”

“Yeah.” His heart sank a little. She was probably going to say it was best then if she disassociated herself from him.

“So I guess I owe you an apology for assuming I knew better than you.” Emily said ruefully. “And it wasn’t good of me to have argued with you so publicly at the wedding and then stormed off like that.”

It was the last thing James had expected her to say, and all he could do was stare at her in astonishment. Why was _she_ apologising to _him_?

“And I heard from Da that you had to break some rules in order to come and get me. So I’m also sorry for all the trouble you went to.” She continued. “Especially when I’d already made you so angry beforehand.”

Then he couldn’t help but lean forward, concern written on his face. “Did you think that I wouldn’t have come for you?” Was he really that bad a friend that she actually thought he’d have done nothing to save her?

Now she looked embarrassed. “I- I don’t know…I wouldn’t have blamed you! I mean, you didn’t know where I was, and it’s not like you could give in to their ridiculous demands. And I know you’re not actually _that_ petty, but I thought you were still angry with me, and I hadn’t seen you since we argued, and-” here her voice grew smaller, “-and then you disappeared after I got to St Mungo’s. So I thought maybe you just didn’t want to see me.”

She was twisting the hem of her shirt nervously and he felt a pang at how discomfited she looked. “Actually, that was because I thought you wouldn’t want to see _me_.” He admitted. “Not just because we fought but because…because you saw what I did to that guy who held you hostage. It wasn’t pretty, and I know I scared you.”

“Oh.” She nodded slowly after a moment’s pause. “That.”

“Being an Auror isn’t always heroic and glorious.” His shoulders sagged. “I’ve had to do…unsavoury things to the people we track down sometimes, which I’m not proud of. And sometimes I just…well, you saw how I was. It was ugly and disgusting and frightening-”

“I’m not frightened.” Emily interrupted him.

“Yes, you were.” He’d seen her horrified face, and it haunted him.

“Well, maybe I was shocked at that moment, but I’m not afraid of you.” She frowned as if he was being absurd. “You’re a good person who went out of your way to rescue me from a truly odious wizard.”

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m not- I’m not this…noble hero you seem to think I am.” 

Now she rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say that. Maybe you went overboard, but you know it and you’re ashamed of it and you’ll try not to let it happen again, right?” It took a few seconds for him to nod. “Then that’s that. That part of you doesn’t define who you are. You’re a good person, even if you did bring me joke flowers from the Wheezes.”

James stared at this young woman in front of him who had seen a side of him few had, and not only forgave his flaws but was helping him overcome them. He must have been silent for longer than he realised, because she was starting to look unnerved. 

“So are we good?” Emily pointed at the two of them. “Because I feel like we’ve apologised enough today to last me quite a while.” Her tone was light but there was still a hint of uncertainty in it.

“One more thing.” He said soberly. “When we were arguing at the wedding, I said some things I didn’t mean. I know you were just sharing your point of view which is true – and my dad quite agrees with you on that – and I made you sound like one of those love-struck fangirls out to convince me that they’re The One.” He rolled his eyes even as he said it. “And you were just being a good friend, and I’m sorry I didn’t appreciate it.” 

She coughed. “Yup, just a good friend here. I appreciate that you finally realise I was right, you numpty. So are we okay?” She stuck out a friendly hand for him to shake. Instead, he pulled her into a bone-crushing hug that knocked the breath out of her.

“You two had better not be doing anything improper up there!” They heard Penelope’s voice from downstairs and broke apart with a laugh, Emily’s cheeks delightfully pink.

“You know what? I promise that if one day you find some girl who _is_ worth all that danger and worry, I won’t even say ‘I told you so.’ Not much, anyway.” She hastily joked and walked past him to open the door, not seeing the expression on his face. 

It was like being hit with a Stunning spell. Because of course he had. He’d found the one girl who meant that much to him. And she was only ever going to see him as a friend.


	6. all of the things we someday wanna be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which things come to an end

Despite all her nonchalance and dismissal of his issues about his shortcomings, Emily did come to realise that James was right. He wasn’t some warlock hero from the tales of Beedle the Bard. Perhaps she’d liked him a little too much to the point of only seeing what most other people did when they looked at James Sirius Potter: good looks, charm, boldness and humour. 

She’d been nursing this crush on him for so long that she hadn’t realised that there were all these aspects of him she’d been unaware of until after their little charade had started. For all his courage and confidence, he held on to deep-set insecurities and nightmares. And his funny side belied a deadly seriousness – and a savagery that terrified both his enemies and himself. He was usually charming, but could be cruel with his words when he was angry.

Emily thought – or rather, hoped – that being much more aware of his flaws would help her to stop idolising him and get over her infatuation. Their friendship was undeniably stronger after this, and she would cherish it instead of despising it for what it wasn’t. And she knew that continuing their fake relationship was the surest way to backslide.

“So now that this is all settled, I guess we should get our breakup stories straight.” She squared her shoulders.

He looked surprised, and almost… disappointed. Emily supposed he was dreading his mother hounding him about getting a girlfriend again. Well, that was his problem, not hers.

“Right, of course.” He belatedly agreed. “Does this mean you won’t be my housemate any longer?”

“Oh.” She’d forgotten about the housing situation. It was nice being at home with her parents at first, but she was already itching to move out again without constantly feeling like she had to be accountable to them for her every action. “I guess I’ll start looking for a place.”

“You don’t have to move out if you don’t want to.” He quickly replied. “I meant it when I said you’re a great housemate.”

“Well, it would be more convenient…” She tapped her chin. “But other people would think it’s weird that we still live together after ‘breaking up’, you know?”

James frowned. “Well, how about you take your time to find a place, and then when you do you can move out and we’ll just tell people… we figured we’re better off as friends.”

It was awfully tempting. But Emily didn’t want to be pretending anymore. “Okay, as long as we don’t have to do the whole family dinner, fake dates and attending weddings as a couple thing.”

“We never went on a fake date.” He raised a brow. “More’s the pity for you.”

“Oh, I think I’ll survive, thank you.” She rolled her eyes. 

“You still owe me a drink for that time I helped you.” 

Merlin, the man was persistent. And childish. “Whatever. I’ll buy some Firewhiskey back for you. So are we okay on the not-dating thing?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Although you’re really missing out on not dating the most eligible bachelor in wizarding Britain.”

He was joking, of course. She knew he was joking, and he knew it, but there was something a little off about the way he was saying it. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but decided not to dwell on it for the time being.

\--

There were many particular sights Emily had witnessed after living in the same apartment as James. For example, seeing him emerge from the bathroom in nothing but a towel, seeing him simulate fighting dark wizards while using the sofa as a barrier, and coming home to the smell of burnt eggs and a spluttering James attempting to expel smoke.

However, nothing in those past few months of living with him could have prepared her for the cuteness that was James Potter carrying a baby in the apartment while attempting to soothe it. She stood stock still at the door for a good moment, slackening her grip on her travel broom as she watched him bounce the baby up and down on his hip with his wandless arm while disposing of a dirty diaper with the other.

“Is this the point where you reveal that you got a witch pregnant some time ago and it’s your turn to babysit?” Emily finally asked.

James and the baby both turned to look at her. “Oh, thank Dumbledore you’re here.” He exhaled dramatically, and within two seconds, he had closed the distance between them and she now had an armful of kid.

“Whoa- what are you doing?” She spluttered, holding on to the child gingerly.

“I need to clean this mess up!” He waved at the mess in the living room. “Just hold her for me, alright?”

The baby was going to slip out of her hands and break, Emily thought as she felt a wave of panic start to rise within her chest. “I- what- baby!”

He glanced back at her and frowned. “Just carry her normally, like you’d hold a Quaffle.”

She made a queasy face as she slowly transferred the child onto one arm and rested her on her shoulder like she’d seen other people do before. Then she crab-walked towards the sofa and thankfully sat down, now assured that even if she dropped the kid, nothing too severe would happen. “Whose baby is this and why did you steal her?” The child began wailing, and Emily began jiggling her knees in a desperate attempt to bounce her. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working.

“There was a family case today at the Department, and none of the usual social workers could take her for some reason.” James waved his wand and things began zooming around to arrange themselves neatly. “So I said I’d take care of her for a day.”

“Surely there must be other people in your department who actually know how to take care of kids.” Emily quickly took out her wand to make colourful sparks fly out to entertain the child, who just cried even louder.

“We’re a little short-staffed at the moment.” He replied distractedly. “Really, Teddy’s the only one with a little kid at the moment, and there’s no way Tori can handle having two at the same time.”

“What happened to her parents?” She asked curiously, and nearly regretted it when his expression went dark.

“They were abusing her in order to utilise her wandless magic.” He bit out.

She gasped in horror. “That’s…that’s awful. You poor darling.” She cooed to the baby, who surprisingly stopped crying for a bit, although she continued sniffling sadly. “No one’s going to hurt you again.” Then Emily had an idea and Summoned the toy broomstick she kept in her room for sentimental value. “Look, a broomstick! Wanna fly?”

“Are you _crazy_?” James’ disembodied voice came from his room.

“Please, I’m not that stupid.” She scoffed and carefully arranged the toy broomstick underneath the baby while still carrying her. “Let’s go, baby!” She made whooshing noises and gently moved the child around without moving from the sofa. “Do you know her name?” 

“The parents weren’t so cooperative, I’m afraid.”

“Well, that won’t do.” She observed the little girl. “How about we call you… Andie? Like the first female Quidditch Keeper in Britain, Andie Fisher.”

“Did you just come up with that on the spot?” James had finally finished clearing up, and was now leaning against his doorframe, an amused smile playing on his lips.

“I…” Emily blushed slightly. “…never mind, it’s silly.”

He raised a brow. “Now I really need to know. What is it?”

She sighed, and decided it couldn’t hurt. “When I was younger, I always thought that if I had kids, I’d like to name them alphabetically, starting from A. So either Andie, as in Andie Fisher, or Anthony as in Tony Flitwick the Chaser.”

“B for Bogart Dale?”

She made a disgusted face. “I’m not naming my kid _Bogart_. And especially not after that blagger – did you _see_ that photo of him pulling Cornell’s broom at the 57th minute in their last game?” He just laughed unapologetically, obviously having seen it. 

“So have you thought of names from A through Z?”

“How many children do you think I intend to _have_ , James?” She asked incredulously.

“I wouldn’t know.” He shrugged, coming over to the sofa where she was. “How many?”

“I- I don’t know. That’s kind of jumping a few steps ahead.” She felt a little caught off guard, and ducked her head down to look at Andie who was still swooshing gently ‘on’ the toy broomstick. “I first need a guy who wants to have babies with me.”

James bit his lip to keep himself from stating the obvious, and instead went with, “I’m thinking at least three kids, myself.”

Emily’s scepticism must have shown on her face. “This coming from the guy who until recently didn’t even want a long-term relationship?”

He shrugged again. “People can change. Maybe I want to have a little Andie Potter in my family.”

She would have smacked him if she’d dared let go of the little girl. “No stealing my name. Get your own.”

“If you say so.” He leaned over to take Andie from her, surprising Emily with his sudden proximity and raising her heart rate in a second. “Come on, Andie. Wouldn’t you rather be a Potter?” She started whimpering again and he began bouncing her up and down again, making the most ridiculous face Emily had ever seen him wear. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” He told the baby gently. “We’re going to keep you safe.”

Miraculously, baby Andie gradually stopped whimpering. Emily reached out and the tiny fingers automatically grasped Emily’s index finger, and she ran a thumb over the back of the little hand soothingly. “She’s so precious.”

Emily glanced up to see James looking down at her with an uncharacteristically fond expression on his face. It stirred something within her, and she couldn’t tear her gaze away from his. 

The moment was broken by the bell-tone that preceded someone Flooing in to the apartment, and they both turned to see Lily step through the fireplace. “Hey, sorry to disturb you guys.” She blinked as she saw the baby. “Has it been that long since I’ve seen you two? When did I become an aunt?”

\--

Emily came out of her room with baby Andie to see James talking to an unfamiliar woman in their sitting room. She was awfully pretty, with blonde hair that fell down her back in waves, and a smile on her bow-shaped lips that was directed right at James as she nodded at whatever he was saying.

“Hey, Em.” James looked up from his conversation to grin at her. “This is Sylvia, the social worker who’s going to take care of Andie.”

“Hi, I’m Emily, the housemate. ”She strode forward to give the woman a handshake while carrying Andie with the other arm. “This is Andie.”

“Hi, I’m Sylvia, nice to meet you.” She sounded genuinely pleased, and she cooed at the baby for a bit. “James was just telling me about how you two have been looking after Andie here. I like the thing with the broom.” Sylvia made little swooping gestures, her eyes crinkling with good humour.

“Well, as my Da always says, you’re never too young to start flying.” Emily chuckled, and couldn’t help but like this woman in front of her. “Are you going to find Andie a home?”

“That’s what I’m hoping to do.” Sylvia’s expression turned serious. “We actually don’t get many cases like these in London, thank goodness for that, but we have systems in place for interim care while we arrange for foster care or potential adoption. It’s a lot of paperwork, but totally worth it.” She smiled at baby Andie, who smiled toothlessly back in return.

“Well, we’ve got to bring Andie back to the Department to get all this settled.” James explained. “Is all her stuff packed?”

“Mostly, yeah.” Emily said doubtfully. “Give me five minutes to get the stuff.”

“Here, why don’t I take her for you?” Sylvia volunteered, neatly plucking Andie out of Emily’s grasp and settling her on her hip like it was the most natural thing to do, unlike Emily who’d had to practice a bit before getting it right.

“Thanks, Em.” James barely glanced at her before inviting Sylvia to sit down to continue enthusiastically discussing some legal issue and the statistics of child abuse in Great Britain.

Emily had a feeling of disquiet as she went back to her room to sort out Andie’s things. It was weird seeing James so chummy with a lady, but she supposed now that he’d gotten over his whole ‘I’m never going to get married because I’m an Auror’ thing, it wouldn’t be long before someone caught his eye – someone like Sylvia who was gorgeous and likable and in a line of work that involved finding homes for abused children.

She really needed to get moving on finding her own place to live in, so that she could distance herself from James and his life like she’d originally planned, she decided with renewed conviction.

\--

“You owe me big time, Potter.” Emily sighed as she shrugged on a coat. “I could be spending my one free Saturday sleeping in and then watching reruns of famous matches.”

“Wow. I’m sorry for taking you away from such an entertaining prospect.” James retorted sarcastically. “And we’re doing this for Al, remember?”

Emily huffed as she toed on her shoes. It was all well and good that Albus wanted to propose to Merry in a romantic, unforgettable way, but wasn’t it overkill to ask his brother to find another girl to _practice_ a run-through? It wasn’t as if Merry was going to say no even if it didn’t turn out to be a perfect proposal.

She lifted a brow when she saw their mode of transport. “Really? Why drive a car when you can fly?”

He shot an annoyed look at her. “Maybe because Merry’s Muggleborn?”

“Oh.” Emily supposed Merry had grown up on Muggle television which always made a big deal about cars. “Fair point.” 

“The rest is going to be quite Muggle-ish as well.” He warned her. “Just go along with it.”

She blinked in surprise when James opened the door for her, and bemusedly slipped into the passenger seat. “Thanks.”

He began driving with more skill than she would have ever guessed him to have, considering she hadn’t even known that he knew how to operate a Muggle car. There was something oddly attractive about how he steered with one hand on the wheel and the other casually resting on the gear-stick. They chatted casually about work, family and friends, but something made Emily hold her tongue about the most important thing at the back of her mind that she needed to tell him.

It was actually nice to sit in a convertible, Emily decided after a while. She was still able to enjoy the wind on her face (and wreaking havoc on her hair) while sitting comfortably on the cushiony seat of the car, quite unlike a broomstick. They eventually parked near a street of shops, where James declared they were going to get ice-cream. As she was fiddling with the seatbelt, he suddenly leaned over and her movements stilled. His fingers gently brushed the top of her head, sending tingles down her entire spine.

She glanced up at him wide-eyed and realised he was holding a couple of leaves. “Must have gotten caught in your hair.” He grinned. “Maybe I should’ve let you walk out looking like a wood nymph.”

She chuckled weakly and tried to smooth down her windblown hair as they strolled towards the ice-cream shop. She found herself rather aware that they must look like any other dating couple, as James did weird things like insist she feed him from her own ice-cream cup, ruffle her hair (despite there being no more leaves!) and hold her hand. It was as if he was giving his all into this pretend proposal run-through of Albus’. 

Despite all this, it was quite easy to forget her reservations and simply relax being next to James, who was endlessly entertaining with his running commentary about everything they saw, often leaving her in stitches from laughter. She almost forgot he had his arm casually slung over her shoulder as they walked around the shops, unconsciously leaning into his warmth. 

The day ended by them returning to a wizarding street to have dinner in a cosy restaurant, which had excellent ambience and food, in Emily’s opinion. “This was actually a lot of fun.” She mused. “I hope it all goes well for Al and Merry.”

She looked up from her plate to smile at him, but his expression had suddenly become a little discomfited. “I’m sorry, I actually have something to confess.”

She frowned slightly, wondering what the problem was.

“I lied about the reason for today.” He exhaled slowly. “Al didn’t really ask me to run through his proposal plan with someone else.”

“What?” Now she was really confused. “Then what are we doing?”

James looked like he was steeling himself for whatever he was about to say next. “So after all that discussion we had, I understood what you and my dad and Teddy were saying about going ahead with relationships despite the dangers that come with my job.”

She nodded slowly, still not sure where this was going.

“And recently I realised I was falling for someone.” He looked at her.

Her throat went impossibly dry, and she tried to ignore the sudden ache in her chest at those words. Of course he’d found someone he liked. Hadn’t she been telling herself the same thing the moment she’d seen him and Sylvia together?

“But the thing is that I haven’t actually been on a date in…well, forever.” He laughed self-consciously. “And I wasn’t sure how to go about it, so I thought I’d get some practice. But I didn’t tell you because it sounded so lame and I was afraid you’d reject me.”

Then she found her voice. “That’s what friends are for, right? Or housemates, rather.”

James frowned, as if she’d said something bizarre. “Housemates?”

“Actually, that reminds me.” Anything to change the topic at this point, she decided. “I’ve been meaning to tell you that I found a place to stay. I’ll be able to move out in the next few days.”

“You- you’re moving out.” He looked bewildered. 

“That was what we agreed on.” She reminded him, hoping he couldn’t tell that her hands were gripping the sides of her chair so tightly her palms hurt. “One of the reserve Chasers, Linda Simmons told me she was looking for a housemate because her current one is moving in with her boyfriend. I think I told you about her? She’s great.”

He nodded wordlessly. 

“Yeah, so I checked out her place, and it’s really nice. It’s also closer to the stadium where we practice.” Emily desperately continued talking, as she rather suspected she’d start tearing up if she stopped and allowed herself to think about what James had just informed her. “We get along pretty well, and we decided that I should move in by the end of next week when her current housemate has finished clearing up the room.”

“I see.” He sounded a little hoarse, and quickly took a sip of water. “It all seems a little sudden.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but I just wanted to confirm all the details first.” She ducked her head apologetically. “I’ll move my stuff out bit by bit so you don’t need to help me again. And like we planned, we can just tell people we decided we’re better off as friends. No reason why we should have to act like enemies after a bad breakup.”

“Of course.” His tone had no inflection whatsoever, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling at this point. “I’ll help you move your stuff. We wouldn’t want people thinking I’m… bitter about you leaving.”

“Well, if it isn’t too much trouble.” She replied, wondering why their conversation felt so stilted now. Maybe he was just less than happy about her moving out. After all, he had said repeatedly that she was a good housemate. But he’d soon get over it, and realise how much more convenient it would be for him to date someone and bring her home without Emily in the way.

And she’d learn to stop wishing for more with James Sirius Potter.

\--

The smell of Firewhiskey hit Fred as he Flooed in to the apartment and he found James slumped on the sofa with a few bottles in front of him on the table. “Hey man, how’re you holding up?”

“Fine, obviously.” James grouched and waved an arm shakily at the apartment. “I got the place all to myself now.”

“She moved out today, huh?” Fred dropped onto the sofa next to his cousin.

“Took everything with her and left.” James made an extremely sad face. “Just said goodbye, we’ll catch up some time, that kind of thing.”

Fred sighed and patted James on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, mate. Wasn’t it a mutual decision, though? Thought you guys decided you’d be better off as friends.”

It was as if James wasn’t listening to him as he continued rambling. “I took her on a date. It was romantic, and we were having fun, and she let me hold her hand. I mean, it was a pretend date, so okay, maybe I should have told her first, but what if she’d said no? But I told her anyway that I was falling for her and she said we were friends and housemates. And then she wanted to move out! So she moved out and we’re not even housemates, so we’re just friends. I scared her away, Freddie.”

James let his head fall onto his cousin’s shoulder, and Fred raised a brow at how uncharacteristically upset James was. But then something about that story sounded strange. “Why were you on a pretend date with your girlfriend? You know you can just go on regular dates, right?”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” He groaned. Why was Freddie asking silly questions?

“Not _now_ she isn’t, but she was until recently.” Fred said with infinite patience. Merlin, his best friend was useless when drunk.

“It was all a lie.” James shook his head despondently. “We were never actually going out. We were just pretending so that I could keep her safe while we investigated Bagman, and then after that was all over, it was just easier to keep pretending and living with her.”

“And then you went and fell in love with her anyway, you idiot.” Fred smiled fondly down at James’ dark head. “With Emma, of all girls.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” James demanded, and it would have been more intimidating if he wasn’t slurring his words.

“Just that she’s been there since we were kids. In class, on the Gryffindor team, a good friend and teammate, Emily Wood. I never thought you and her…well, maybe that’s not entirely true…” 

“What the hell are you talking about?” James looked annoyed now.

“I dunno, I guess there was some point when I thought maybe you liked Em.” Fred shrugged. “But nothing ever happened, so I didn’t say anything. Thought maybe I was wrong about that.”

James sighed and burrowed deeper into the sofa. “You weren’t wrong. I kind of liked her a bit in seventh year, but I didn’t do anything about it because I’d convinced myself there was no point if I wanted to become an Auror.”

The bell rang and Lily stepped through the fireplace. “Woah, what’s going on? Where’s Emily?”

“She left.” James groaned again. “I basically told her how I felt about her and she _left_.”

Lily looked utterly confused and turned to Fred for clarification. Fred scratched his nose. “He said he took her on a date and told her he was falling for her and she friend-zoned him. And she just moved out today, so he’s miserable.”

“That’s impossible.” Lily declared unequivocally. “She couldn’t have done that.”

“Her room is indeed empty, if you’d like to check.” Fred jabbed a thumb behind him.

“No, I mean there’s no way she would have ‘friend-zoned’ James, because she’s been in love with him since Hogwarts.” Lily scoffed. 

“Oh for Merlin’s sake, that was just our cover story!” James finally exploded. “We were never actually dating! It started from a series of misunderstandings and then we continued pretending for the sake of the investigation.”

His sister gaped at him for a good five seconds. “I knew it was too sudden to be true!” She pointed an accusing finger at him. “But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s in love with you, you moron. Why do you think I tried so hard to match-make the two of you over the years? If you hadn’t been so slow to notice the way she looked at you all this while I wouldn’t have had to bother!”

At this point, James had shot up straight and was staring at her in disbelief. “Lily Luna Potter, you had better not be messing with me now.”

“What exactly did you say to her?” Lily retorted. “Did you actually tell her to her face that you’re in love with her? Or did you do that stupid guy thing where you talk in circles and assume she knows what you mean?”

Fred snorted, ignoring the wounded look James gave him.

\--

Emily took a moment to look around the apartment that she had so recently vacated. She liked her new place well enough, and her new housemate was lovely, but this apartment held some special memories for her. It had been a bit of a surprise when James had called her to let her know that she’d left some stuff behind by accident, because she thought she’d been meticulous in her packing.

“You didn’t leave much.” James informed her as she put the few items into a bag. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been well, thanks.” She replied, although it sounded terribly banal. “Practices are going well – I think we’re improving on our teamwork. How about you?”

“Actually, I haven’t been as well lately.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Oh no.” She dropped the bag on the floor. “What happened? Are you ill? Is it something at work?”

“Nothing like that.” He reassured her. “I actually have something to say to you, if you don’t mind.”

“I- of course.” She replied, her mind running frantically with what he could possibly have to say to her which was so important.

“The other day I took you out on a pretend date and I told you it was because I thought I needed to practice before actually asking out the girl I like on a real date.”

“Yes.” Emily’s heart gave a twinge as she thought about James going on a date with another girl.

“But I never got around to telling you who it is.” He continued, with an odd gleam in his eye.

“Oh.” She didn’t actually want to know who this mysterious girl was who had managed to catch James’ fancy. But if she truly considered herself his friend, shouldn’t she want him to be happy? And if he felt she was a close enough friend to confide in about the girl he liked, didn’t he deserve her attention? There was a lump in her throat as she quelled her disappointment. “Yes?”

James suddenly grasped her hands in his, to her shock. “I’m in love with you, Emily.”

Emily could only stare at him in astonishment. “What?”

“You’re an amazing person, and you are worth all the danger and worry that comes with being with an Auror, and I am so stupidly in love with you.” He repeated, his gaze never leaving her face. “I’m not sure how you feel, but if you like me, even just a little, I-”

He broke off when he saw her brilliant smile. “I’ve been in love with you for the longest time.” She admitted softly, feeling like her heart was going to burst.

“Emily Wood, would you do me the honour of being my girlfriend? For real this time?” He added on the last bit with a mischievous grin.

Emily grinned back. “Will it be better than being your pretend girlfriend?”

“It comes with certain added benefits.” James’ smile turned wicked, and he brought up a hand to cup her cheek gently. But before he lowered his mouth to hers, he paused. “Is this alright?”

“Yes.” She tugged him down and kissed him. It was nothing like the sweet little kiss he’d planted on her in his parents’ house all those months ago. Instead it was hungry and open and full of longing that was finally fulfilled as his mouth ravaged hers.

They broke apart for air a minute later, and she could feel her heart racing. He was holding her close to his body as if she were something infinitely precious.

“What are we going to tell the others?” She finally asked.

“We’ll figure something out.” He smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!


End file.
